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| Mark Twain envelope from the Buffalo Library collection |
Another blizzardy day in Buffalo has dawned. I have happily turned my computer away from the window and toward the great missing manuscript mystery of 1993. The story begins in 1885 when James Fraser Gluck, a lawyer for the Buffalo & Erie County Library, asked Mark Twain for the original manuscript of Huckleberry Finn for the Buffalo Library. Twain agreed, but only sent the second half - he told Gluck he wasn’t sure what happened to the first half of the document and, according to The New York Times, he wrote, "I have hunted the house over, and that is all I can find". He thought that it may have been lost at the printer. While the library was thrilled to have the partial work, it was kind of like getting a cookie with a bite taken out of it, yummy but not worth much.
Decades passed while the partial manuscript sat patiently in B & E County Library archives. And then, in 1991, in a steamer trunk in the attic of a 62 yr. old librarian in Los Angeles, the 600-page first half of the manuscript appeared! The librarian was James Gluck’s granddaughter, she discovered the treasure while finally sorting through several trunks that were sent to her by her aunt from Upstate New York.
Turns out that Twain had found the first half of manuscript after all and sent it to Gluck who had taken it home with him - possibly to read - before handing it off the library. When Gluck died suddenly in 1897 the document was stowed away in the trunk and ended up in the attic.
A huge battle for the newly found manuscript ensued - everyone wanted a piece of it, especially since it included unpublished materials and had corrections written all over it in Twain’s handwriting. Thanks to the preservation of the original letters documenting Twain’s intent to donate the text to the library, Buffalo won the right to display the physical pages and went to work creating “The Mark Twain Room” at the library to showcase their new pride and joy. The room opened to the public in 1995 and it is especially fun to visit after learning about the reunited manuscript. A story that I am sure Twain himself would have gotten a kick out of.
p.s. Belle da Costa Greene bought Life on the Mississippi and Pudd’nhead Wilson from Twain in 1909 for $2,500 to be included in J.P. Morgan’s collection.
p.p.s. I think I’ll go clean out my attic.
Decades passed while the partial manuscript sat patiently in B & E County Library archives. And then, in 1991, in a steamer trunk in the attic of a 62 yr. old librarian in Los Angeles, the 600-page first half of the manuscript appeared! The librarian was James Gluck’s granddaughter, she discovered the treasure while finally sorting through several trunks that were sent to her by her aunt from Upstate New York.
Turns out that Twain had found the first half of manuscript after all and sent it to Gluck who had taken it home with him - possibly to read - before handing it off the library. When Gluck died suddenly in 1897 the document was stowed away in the trunk and ended up in the attic.
A huge battle for the newly found manuscript ensued - everyone wanted a piece of it, especially since it included unpublished materials and had corrections written all over it in Twain’s handwriting. Thanks to the preservation of the original letters documenting Twain’s intent to donate the text to the library, Buffalo won the right to display the physical pages and went to work creating “The Mark Twain Room” at the library to showcase their new pride and joy. The room opened to the public in 1995 and it is especially fun to visit after learning about the reunited manuscript. A story that I am sure Twain himself would have gotten a kick out of.
p.s. Belle da Costa Greene bought Life on the Mississippi and Pudd’nhead Wilson from Twain in 1909 for $2,500 to be included in J.P. Morgan’s collection.
p.p.s. I think I’ll go clean out my attic.
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