Year

1853-1910

Text

Type

Publication

Contributors (1)

Subjects

Chronology Entries (4)

#	Year	Text	Linked Data
1	1864	Letter from Mark Twain to Mrs. Jane Clemens and Mrs. Moffett ; Sept. 25 (1864). By the new census, San Francisco has a population of 130,000. They don't count the hordes of Chinamen.	Person: Twain, Mark
2	1866	Mark Twain and Anson Burlingame. Mark Twain's interest in China had been aroused and partially influenced by Anson Burlingame. Twain met Burlingame when he was working as a correspondent for the 'Sacramento Union' in Sandwich Islands, Hawaii. Letter from Mark Twain to Jane Lampton Clemens and Pamela A. Moffett ; Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, 21 June 1866. Hon. Anson Burlingame, U.S. Minister to China, & Gen. Van Valkenburgh, Minister to Japan, with their families & suits, have just arrived here en route. They were going to do me the honor to call on me this morning, & that accounts for my being out of bed now. You know what condition my room is always in when you are not around—so I climbed out of bed & dressed & shaved pretty quick & went up to the residence of the American Minister & called on them. Mr. Burlingame told me a good deal about Hon. Jere Clemens & that Virginia Clemens who was wounded in a duel. He was in Congress years together with both of them. Mr. B. sent for his son, to introduce him—said he could tell that frog story of mine as well as anybody. I told him I was glad to hear it, for I never tried to tell it myself, without making a botch of it. At his request I have loaned Mr Burlingame pretty much everything I ever wrote. I guess he will be an almighty wise man if by the time he wades through that lot. Letter from Mark Twain to Mrs. Jane Clemens and Mrs. Moffett ; Honolulu, June 27 (1866). Mr. Burlingame went with me all the time, and helped me question the men—throwing away invitations to dinner with the princes and foreign dignitaries, and neglecting all sorts of things to accommodate me. You know how I appreciate that kind of thing—especially from such a man, who is acknowledged to have no superior in the diplomatic circles of the world, and obtained from China concessions in favor of America which were refused to Sir Frederick Bruce and Envoys of France and Russia until procured for them by Burlingame himself—which service was duly acknowledged by those dignitaries. He hunted me up as soon as he came here, and has done me a hundred favors since, and says if I will come to China in the first trip of the great mail steamer next January and make his house in Pekin my home, he will afford me facilities that few men can have there for seeing and learning. He will give me letters to the chiefs of the great Mail Steamship Company which will be of service to me in this matter. I expect to do all this, but I expect to go to the States first—and from China to the Paris World's Fair. Letter from Mark Twain to Mrs. Jane Clemens and family ; San F., Dec. 4 (1866). The China Mail Steamer is getting ready and everybody says I am throwing away a fortune in not going in her. I firmly believe it myself.	Document: Li, Xilao. The adventures of Mark Twain in China : translation and appreciation of more than a century. In : Mark Twain annual ; vol. 6, no 1 (2008). (Twa22, Publication) Document: Ou, Hsin-yun. Mark Twain's racial ideologies and his portrayal of the Chinese. In : Concentric : literary and cultural studies ; vol. 36, no 2 (2010). (Twa10, Publication) Person: Burlingame, Anson Person: Twain, Mark
3	1874	Letter from Mark Twain to Dean Sage ; 22 April (1875), Hartford, Conn. "[Joseph Hopkins] Twichell & I were to do the Centennial together; but he had a remorseful streak after his loose career & indecent conversation in Brooklyn & while under the spell of it he concluded to stay at his post on Sunday. He preached twice that day, left here at [midnight], took an early breakfast in Boston, infested Concord & Lexington all day & reached Hartford after [midnight] that night, so as to be on hand early next day—for he had an opportunity to bury a Chinaman with some Congregational orgies & would h not have missed it for the world."	Person: Twain, Mark Person: Twichell, Joseph Hopkins
4	1880-1881	Letter from Mark Twain to William Dean Howells ; 24 Dec. (1880), Harford, Conn. Xmas Eve. "Next day I attended to business—which was, to introduce [Joseph Hopkins] Twichell to Gen. [James Hope] Grant & procure a private talk in the interest of the Chinese Educational Mission here in the U. S. Well, it was very funny. Joe had been sitting up nights building facts & arguments together into a mighty & unassalilable array, & had studied them out & got them by heart—all with the trembling half-hearted hope of getting Grant to add his signature to a sort of petition to the Viceroy of China; but Grant took in the whole situation in a jiffy, & before Joe had more than fairly got started, the old man said: "I'll write the Viceroy a letter—a separate letter—& bring strong reasons to bear upon him; I know him well., & what I say will have weight with him; yes, & with the advers I will attend to it right away. No, no thanks—I shall be glad to do it—it will be a labor of love." Letter from James Hope Grant to Mark Twain. (1881). "Li Hung Chang is the most powerful and most influential Chinaman in his country. He professed great friendship for me when I was there, and I have had assurances of the same thing since. I hope, if he is strong enough with his government, that the decision to withdraw the Chinese students from this country may be changed." Letter from Mark Twain to James Hope Grant ; March 16 (1881). "Your letter to Li Hung Chang [Li Hongzhang] has done its work, & the Chinese Educational Mission in Harford is saved. This cablegram mentions the receipt of your letter, & at the same time it commands the minister Chin to take Yung Wing [Rong Hong] into his consultations."	Person: Grant, James Hope Person: Li, Hongzhang Person: Rong, Hong Person: Twain, Mark Person: Twichell, Joseph Hopkins