out of debt, advanced its stock from twenty-five to two hundred,
and left seventy thousand dollars clear profit. Eighty-five thousand
copies were sold within sixteen months, the largest sale of a four
dollar book ever achieved in America in so short a time up to that date.
It is, miraculous to relate, still the leader in its own special field
--a "bestseller" for forty years!

The proprietors of the 'Alta California' were exceeding wroth when they
heard that Clemens was preparing for publication the very letters which
they had commissioned him to write and had printed in their own paper.
They prepared to publish a cheap paper-covered edition of the letters,
and sent the American Publishing Co. a challenge in the shape of an
advance notice of their publication. Clemens hurried back to San
Francisco from the East, and soon convinced the proprietors of the 'Alta
California' of the authenticity of his copyright. The paper-covered
edition was then and there abandoned forever.

Before leaving the West to settle permanently in the East, Mark Twain
was associated for a short time with the 'Overland Monthly', edited by
Bret Harte. In his review of 'The Innocents Abroad', Harte asserted
that Clemens deserved "to rank foremost among Western humorists"; but he
was grievously disappointed in the first few contributions from Clemens
to the Overland Monthly--notably 'By Rail through France' (later
incorporated in The Innocents Abroad)--because of their perfect gravity.
At last, 'A Mediaeval Romance'--a story which has been said to contain
the germ of 'A Connecticut Yankee', because of its burlesque of
mediaevalism--won the enthusiastic approval of Bret Harte.

From this time forward, Samuel L. Clemens is seen in a new environment,
in association with new ideas and a new civilization. The history of
this second period does not fall within the scope of the present work.
It has just been narrated with brilliancy and charm by his close
associate and most intimate friend, Mr. William Dean Howells, in his
admirable book 'My Mark Twain'. In the subsequent portion of the
present work attention will be directed solely to those features of Mark
Twain's life which have a direct bearing upon his career as a man of
letters, and which throw into relief the progressive development of his
genius.

The South and the West contributed to Mark Twain's development, and
added to his store of vital experience, in greater measure than all the
other