Col. Sellers A Drama In Five Acts by Saml L. Clemens

FOUND TEXT SERIES: A Play from Saml L. Clemens SamlL. Clemens Col. Sellers A Drama In Five Acts by Saml L. Clemens "Mark Twain" Elmiraf N. Y. Entered in the Office of the Librarian of Congress July 1874 Cast of Characters Col. Mulberry Sellers— Si Hawkins— Clay Hawkins—his adopted son Lafayette Hawkins—son of Si Hawkins Col. George Selby—an ex Rebel— Judge of Court— Prosecuting Attorney— Duffer—Counsel for the defense— Uncle Daniel—an old stammering Negro— John Peterson—a servant— Mrs Si Hawkins— Emily Hawkins—Her Daughter— Laura Hawkins—Her adopted Daughter— Mrs Mulberry Sellers— Jury. Sheriff. Messengers— Servants—Citizens & c & c COLONEL SELLERS / Saml L. Clemens Introduction Nineteenth-century American literature is not known for its drama. Yet the theatre, as popular entertainment, was widely regarded as a quintessenrially democratic forum. Traveling players performed on riverboats, in boom towns and mining camps and in the multitude of "opera houses" scattered throughout the country. After the Civil War, improved rail transportation made such performances readily available to an ever-growing populace in the West. Productions of Shakespeare and adaptations of German and French plays were commonplace, but dramatizations of American works such as Rip Van Winkle and Uncle Tom's Cabin also had long and profitable runs. It is in this context that authors such as Henry James, William Dean Howells, Bret Harte, Mark Twain, and many others wanted to succeed in the drama as well as in fiction. Provided one might produce a play of long-standing appeal, there was money and celebrity to be had. Mark Twain's involvement in the drama was long-standing and, for the most part, ill-fated. He had written drama criticism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise as early as 1862, and over the course of his career wrote, either alone or in collaboration, over twenty plays; he translated into English three German plays and supervised the dramatization of six of his novels. Only the play Colonel Sellers, now published for the first time, can be considered a true success, however. The genesis and history of its production are fascinating and intricate stories in themselves. In February 1874, Twain reported that he had written a "queer play," possibly one based on the novel The Gilded Age, which he and Charles Dudley Warner had written and to which the figure of Sellers was Twain's most interesting contribution. Whatever Twain's dramatic aspirations may have been at the time, however, when he heard that a production of the play based on the novel and dramatized by G.B. Densmore was planned in San Francisco, he took immediate action. He wrote to Warner that he knew Densmore well enough and resolved that "he shan't run any play on MY brains." By May, Twain had enjoined the Densmore play against future performances and written or rewritten his own. He finished Colonel Sellers by July 15, 1874, presumably having John Raymond, who had been in the Densmore production, in mind to play the title role. Twain bought the Densmore script for $200, promising to pay another $200 if his own play proved successful. On July 20, Twain submitted an amanuensis copy of his play for copyright, and he wrote Robert Mackenzie that he was well enough satisfied with his rendering of Sellers: "I meant him The Missouri Review · 111 to be at all times & under all circumstances a gentleman & so he is, now___ I am very glad you like the old speculator (he still lives, & is drawn from life, not imagination)—I ate a turnip dinner with him years ago." But whatever may have been Twain's artistic ambition, it eventually vied with another intention—that the play should make money. As it turned out, Colonel Sellers was one of the most prosperous children of Twain's fertile imagination. From its opening night in 1874 until its final performance twelve years later, Colonel Sellers was a perennial success and eventually earned Twain well over $100,000, more than he made from the sales of either Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer. Nevertheless, Twain felt that Raymond played the Colonel too much as a comic and slightly preposterous visionary and never really understood the nature of the role: "I threw...