Shelley Fisher Fishkin

U of Texas, Austin

President, Mark Twain Circle of America

Thank you to all the scholars who presented their stimulating papers at Mark Twain Circle sessions at the MLA in Chicago on December 27th and 28th, 1999: Carla Anderson (Michigan State Univ.), Ryuichi Asayama (Soka Univ., Japan), James Brecher (Univ. of South Florida), Joel Dinerstein (Univ. of Texas), Christopher Krentz (Univ. of Virginia), Bong Eun Kim (Koisin Univ., Korea), Eliza Russi Lowen McGraw (Vanderbilt Univ.) and Charles Martin (Florida State Univ.).

On Tuesday, December 28th, following the second Twain session, Mark Twain Circle members braved the Chicago winter and trekked the eight blocks from the Hyatt Regency to the Palmer House in the cold to commemorate a noteworthy historic event.

On November 13, 1879 the Palmer House was the scene of a grand banquet in honor of General Grant, who had just returned from his world tour. Twain attended "The Thirteenth Annual Banquet of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee." As Albert Bigelow Paine put it, "it seemed to him that there was something strikingly picturesque in the idea of a Confederate soldier who had been chased for a fortnight in the rain through Ralls and Monroe counties, Missouri, now being invited to come and give welcome home to his old imaginary pursuer." In addition to Twain and Grant, the six hundred guests at that dinner included Generals Sherman, Sheridan, Logan, Vilas, Woodford and Pope. Paine wrote, "Chicago has never known a greater event than that dinner..."

The original Palmer House, founded in 1871, burned down in the Great Chicago Fire, and its second incarnation—the one that Twain visited—was later demolished as well. Building #3, designed by Holabird & Roche, was completed in 1924. Since the building in which the 1879 dinner had been held was long gone, I was certain that there was little we could do to “touch” history. I was wrong.

I learned from Mary Frances Madden and Ken Price of the Palmer House Hilton, that 1) they still had the extraordinary china used at that dinner—and a silver serving piece Twain himself was known to have used, and 2) the hotel chef still had the recipes.

Thanks to their very gracious help, the thirteen-piece 24-carat-gold-trimmed French Haviland bone china table setting used at that dinner was displayed in the Mark Twain Circle Suite, along with the silver water pitcher that Mark Twain used on that occasion.

Through the ingenuity of today’s Palmer House chef, Daniel Legard, the sixty-some guests at the Twain Circle gathering sampled delicacies from the 1879 menu, prepared according to historic Palmer House recipes—including “Blue Point Oysters on the Shell,” “Roast Fillet of Beef Larded with Mushrooms,” “Breasts of Duck, Larded, Currant Jelly,” “Cakes, Assorted,” “Fruits,” “Hard Tack,” “Roquefort and English Cheeses & Celery.”

Guests from Korea, Japan, Great Britain, and across the U.S. examined the exhibit and dined on Chef Legard’s recreated menu as strains of “Marching through Georgia” and other songs the Civil War veterans sang at that banquet wafted through the air. Marta L. Werner, Project Manager of the Huck Finn CD-ROM project, gave us a complete and detailed update. Twain collector Robert T. Slotta of Hilliard, Ohio, surprised us by bringing original correspondence related to Twain’s relationship to Grant for guests to examine. Ken Price of the Palmer House regaled us with stories of the original Grant dinner. And we were privileged to hear some delightful excerpts from the famous speech that Twain delivered at that dinner by a speaker renowned for his platform performances on three continents: our own David E. E. Sloane, former President of the Mark Twain Circle and current President of the American Humor Studies Association, which co-sponsored the reception. Thank you, David, for your superb rendition of “The Babies.”

Everyone went home with a souvenir copy of the original dinner menu--which was decorated with Civil War scenes and designed to be folded into a miniature tent. (Martha Stewart, take note!) For those of you who couldn’t join us, there is a copy in this Mark Twain Circular, ready to be cut out and assembled.

As I listened to the hum of animated conversation in the room, I remembered another Mark Twain Circle gathering at an MLA in Chicago, around ten years ago, the first MTC social event I had ever attended. I remember slipping nervously into the room, after braving the Chicago cold to find my way from the Convention hotel, and seeing no familiar faces. Then a tall man with a warm smile read my name tag and told me how pleased he was that I was there. It was the late Pascal Covici, Jr. He made me feel welcome. He made me feel that I belonged there. And soon that roomful of strangers was a roomful of friends.

At Palmer House, introducing myself to those I hadn’t met yet and introducing MTC members to one another, I remembered how important it is to “connect” with fellow Twainiacs in person every now and then. Reading each other is good. Writing each other is good. But every now and then it’s nice to be in the same room, shake hands, make eye contact and share a glass of wine. As I welcomed everyone arriving at the suite at the Palmer House, I drank a private toast to Pascal.

As the Mark Twain Circle enters its fifteenth year, I hope it will remain a place where scholars from all over the world are able to feel “at home.” And I hope it continues to nurture Twain talk and warm fellowship long into the twenty-first century and beyond.