Bancroftiana, Number 121 Fall 2002: "Permission to Drink Anything" Mark Twain's Letters to Eduard Pötzl

"Permission to Drink Anything"
Mark Twain's Letters to Eduard Pötzl

The Bancroft Library was recently able to acquire for its Mark Twain Papers a remarkable file of nine letters written by Mark Twain, his wife, and his daughter Clara, to Eduard Pötzl (1851– 1915), the Viennese humorist and journalist who had long written for the Neues Wiener Tagblatt and who befriended the Clemenses during their visit to Vienna in 1897–98. The new letters more than double the number of letters Clemens was known to have sent to Pötzl, and they greatly enrich our grasp of their developing friendship in a way that only personal documents can.

The Vienna years of Mark Twain's life were recently the subject of an entire book, Our Famous Guest: Mark Twain in Vienna , by Carl Dolmetsch, published in 1992. Dolmetsch made extensive use of Mark Twain's notebooks for this period (they are among the still unpublished documents in the Mark Twain Papers), and he spent several years living in Vienna, looking for and reading documents and newspapers that helped reconstitute the story of Clemens's visit. One experienced reviewer predicted that the resulting book would "reign as definitive even longer than the Hapsburg dynasty." But good as the book is, that is a risky claim to make when new letters by Clemens are still being found at the rate of one a week.

The Clemenses arrived in Vienna on the evening of September 27, 1897, and were soon installed in the Hotel Metropole, where Clemens was temporarily confined by a sudden attack of gout. As Dolmetsch shows, the highly competitive Viennese press were all over the story of this famous American's presence in their city. Among the first to publish an interview with him was Siegmund Schlesinger of the Neues Wiener Taglbatt , on October 2. By then Pötzl must already have introduced himself and given Clemens some of his books, for in the Schlesinger interview Clemens "mentioned his admiration for Pötzl's 'gallery of pure Viennese types' from which he hoped to learn much" (Dolmetsch, 35). That same day, Clemens wrote to Pötzl, thanking him for the books, which may have included Bummelei and Launen , published in 1896 and 1897. This is how he expressed his gratitude in one of these nine letters, published here for the first time:

Hotel Metropole, Oct. 2'97. My Dear Sir: I hasten to offer my sincerest thanks for the books; & to add that I wish there were more of them. I have just been reading Darf ich Rachen. How sharply it reminds me of an experience of my own; & by this sign I recognize that back of it lies truth, actuality, fact. I did not publish mine, but I have never forgotten it nor ceased to value it. It was three years ago, in Paris, when I had my first attack of gout. The first physician forbade red wine but allowed whisky; the second forbade whisky but allowed red wine; the third—but by your own experience you see how it ended: by consulting six doctors I achieved permission to drink anything I wanted to—except water. The trouble with less thoughtful people is, that they stop with one doctor. I am down with the gout again; but this time I haven't any doctor at all. This is the very Past-Mastership of wisdom. Sincerely Yours S. L. Clemens*

The very next day, October 3, Pötzl published a sketch about Mark Twain, "Der Stille Beobachter" (The Silent Observer), a comic fiction which depicted him standing on a city bridge observing the passers-by, writing in his notebook, and being greeted by two workmen who attempt, without success, to talk with him in German. Pötzl obviously sent Clemens a copy of this featured sketch (feuilleton) as it appeared in the Sunday paper, and offered to show him around the city when he was well. Here is Clemens's reply, written on October 4:

Monday, 5 p. m. Dear Mr. Pötzl: Thank you ever so much for the books & the Feuilleton, & for the offer to show me the city: I accept the whole, gratefully. I shall be very glad to have you along when I get arrested on the bridge, because you will be able to explain the case to the police (and divide the punishment.) The Gicht is gone at last, & I could get out of bed now—& shall, within the hour. Tomorrow forenoon I shall finish my breakfast by 11, & shall be dressed & glad to see you if you can come. I am tired of the house; I want to get out on the bridge. Sincerely Yours S. L. Clemens*

So it is clear that when Pötzl "came calling at the Metropole" the next day (Dolmetsch, 36), the two humorists had already begun their acquaintance in the form of these two charming letters, and the gift of Pötzl's books. For the rest of their correspondence (most of which is fully preserved, with envelopes) the curious reader must either come upstairs to the Mark Twain Papers, or await its appearance in the Mark Twain Project's Electronic Edition of Mark Twain's Complete Letters, now in progress.

—Robert H. Hirst
General Editor, Mark Twain Papers

* These previously unpublished letters by Mark Twain
are © 2001 by the Mark Twain Foundation.