The Prince and the Pauper (Illustrated Children's Classic). Mark Twain
Читать онлайн книгу.A Mantel and a Baby Elephant
CCLXXVI. Shakespeare-Bacon Talk
CCLXXVII. "Is Shakespeare Dead?"
CCLXXVIII. The Death of Henry Rogers
CCLXXIX. An Extension of Copyright
CCLXXXI. The Last Summer at Stormfield
CCLXXXIII. Astronomy and Dreams
CCLXXXV. A Wedding at Stormfield
CCLXXXVII. Mark Twain's Reading
CCLXXXVIII. A Bermuda Birthday
CCXCIII. The Return to the Invisible
Volume I.
Part 1: 1835-1866
TO CLARA CLEMENS GABRILOWITSCH WHO STEADILY UPHELD THE AUTHOR'S PURPOSE TO WRITE HISTORY RATHER THAN EULOGY AS THE STORY OF HER FATHER'S LIFE
An Acknowledgment
Dear William Dean Howells, Joseph Hopkins Twichell, Joseph T. Goodman, and other old friends of Mark Twain:
I cannot let these volumes go to press without some grateful word to you who have helped me during the six years and more that have gone to their making.
First, I want to confess how I have envied you your association with Mark Twain in those days when you and he "went gipsying, a long time ago." Next, I want to express my wonder at your willingness to give me so unstintedly from your precious letters and memories, when it is in the nature of man to hoard such treasures, for himself and for those who follow him. And, lastly, I want to tell you that I do not envy you so much, any more, for in these chapters, one after another, through your grace, I have gone gipsying with you all. Neither do I wonder now, for I have come to know that out of your love for him grew that greater unselfishness (or divine selfishness, as he himself might have termed it), and that nothing short of the fullest you could do for his memory would have contented your hearts.
My gratitude is measureless; and it is world-wide, for there is no land so distant that it does not contain some one who has eagerly contributed to the story. Only, I seem so poorly able to put my thanks into words.
Albert Bigelow Paine.
Prefatory Note