thumb , right , Samuel Clemens founded ''Charles L. Webster and Company'' in 1884. The firm closed in 1894 after Clemens declared bankruptcy.
Photo: Sarony ''1895'' Charles L. Webster and Company was an American subscription publishing firm founded in New York in 1884 by author and journalist

Samuel Clemens Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...

, popularly known as Mark Twain. The firm was closed after declaring bankruptcy in 1894.

History

Founded in 1884, the firm was named after Clemens' niece’s husband

Charles L. Webster Charles Luther Webster (September 24, 1851 – April 28, 1891) served as Mark Twain's business manager and was eventually installed as the head of Twain's publishing company, Charles L. Webster and Co., named for Webster. Webster was born in C ...

whom Clemens appointed the firm's business director. The formation of the company came out of Clemens' dissatisfaction with his previous publishers including Charles H. Webb, Elisha Bliss, and James R. Osgood. Clemens wanted to earn a dual income as both author and publisher of books. The first two American publications of the firm, ''

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or as it is known in more recent editions, ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', is a novel by American author Mark Twain, which was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United S ...

'' (1885) and the ''

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant '' The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant'' are two volumes of autobiography by Ulysses S. Grant, the 18th President of the United States. The work focuses on his military career during the Mexican–American War and the American Civil War. The ...

'' (1885) were highly successful. The

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

memoir publication in particular financially helped Grant and his family at a time when Grant was sick, having been diagnosed with throat cancer. Grant was a former

President of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

and top commanding general during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

and

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

. After Grant's death, Clemens gave Grant's widowed wife,

Julia Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...

, a substantial royalty check of $450,000, the equivalent of 11 million dollars today. According to Webster, prior to his death, Grant dictated the last part of the second volume to a stenographer working for the firm, due to writing fatigue, starting with Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. Webster, who accompanied the stenographer, respected Grant's reputation and honored his request to keep secret from reporters that Grant dictated part of the book. Other books later published by the firm were not as successful and soon Clemens had to reinvest profits back into the firm to make up for losses. In 1888, as the company financially suffered, Clemens fired Webster, who was at odds with him on how to run the firm successfully. Webster, himself, had been overworked traveling throughout the United States visiting the firm's principal agents. As the firm grew deeper in debt, Clemens was forced to close the business having formally declared bankruptcy on April 18, 1894. The firms most productive years, although not financially, were from 1891 to 1893. Notable authors published, including Clemens, were

Leo Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich TolstoyTolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; russian: link=no, Лев Николаевич Толстой,In Tolstoy's day, his name was written as in pre-refor ...

Henry George Henry George (September 2, 1839 – October 29, 1897) was an American political economist and journalist. His writing was immensely popular in 19th-century America and sparked several reform movements of the Progressive Era. He inspired the eco ...

, and

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

. 320px, Charles L. Webster and Company ad for Samuel Clemen's popular book ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn''

Selected list of published books

1884

* ''

'' United Kingdom by

1885

* ''

'' United States by

* ''

'' Volumes 1 & 2 by

1886

* ''McClellan's Own Story: The War for the Union, the Soldiers Who Fought It, the Civilians Who Directed It, and His Relations to It and to Them'' by

George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, Civil War Union general, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey. A graduate of West Point, McCl ...

1887

* ''Tenting on the Plains; or, General Custer in Kansas and Texas'' by

Elizabeth Custer Elizabeth Bacon Custer (née Bacon; April 8, 1842 – April 4, 1933) was an American author and public speaker, and the wife of Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, United States Army. She spent most of their marriage in relative proxi ...

* ''The Life of Pope Leo the XIII'' by Father Bernard O'Reilly * Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock by Almira Russell Hancock

1888

* ''Personal Memoirs of P.H. Sheridan, General, United States Army'' Volumes 1 & 2 by

Philip Sheridan General of the Army Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 – August 5, 1888) was a career United States Army officer and a Union general in the American Civil War. His career was noted for his rapid rise to major general and his close as ...

1889

* ''The Life and Letters of Roscoe Conkling, Orator, Statesman, Advocate'' by Alfred R. Conkling * ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' by Samuel Clemens

1890

* ''Memoirs of Gen. W. T. Sherman'' by William T. Sherman

1891

* ''Adventures of a Fair Rebel'' by Matt Crim * ''Tinkletop's Crime'' by George Robert Sims * ''Ivan the Fool; or, The Old Devil and the Three Small Devils, also A Lost Opportunity, and Polikshka'' by Leo Tolstoy

1892

*''The Master of Silence: A Romance'' by Irving Bacheller *''Moonblight and Six Feet of Romance'' by Daniel C. Beard *''The German Emperor and His Eastern Neighbors'' by Poultney Bigelow *''Writings of Christopher Columbus, Descriptive of the Discovery of the New World'' by Christopher Columbus *''Life is Worth Living, and Other Stories'' by Leo Tolstoy *''The American Claimant'' by Samuel Clemens *'' Merry Tales'' by Samuel Clemens *''Selected Poems'' by Walt Whitman *''Autobiographia, or, the Story of a Life'' by Walt Whitman

1893

*''A Catastrophe in Bohemia and Other Stories'' by Henry S. Brooks *''The Art of Sketching'' by Gustave B. Fraipont *''Social Problems'' by Henry George *''Stories from the Rabbis'' by Abram Samuel Isaacs *''The £1,000,000 Bank-note and Other New Stories'' by Samuel Clemens

1894

*''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' by Samuel Clemens *''Alfred Lord Tennyson'' by Arthur Waugh

References

Sources

* *{{cite web , ref={{sfnRef, The Kansas City Star (June 25, 1887), title=The Publisher of Grant's Book He Tells How the General Was Induced to Write - Some New Books - Mark Twain's Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor , url=http://www.twainquotes.com/interviews/WebsterInterview.html , website=Twainquotes , year=1997 , accessdate=June 4, 2014 Publishing companies of the United States 1884 establishments in New York (state) 1894 disestablishments in New York (state) American companies established in 1884 American companies disestablished in 1894 Publishing companies established in 1884 Publishing companies disestablished in 1894