Navigating the River

I first met Bob Hirst when we were both graduate students at Berkeley. My connection then to the Mark Twain Papers was through my professor, Henry Nash Smith, and included many hours of doing primary research for term papers in both the archives and the Bancroft Library more generally. And there, in the background, was the cub pilot, Bob Hirst, beginning to “learn” the river he would eventually master with remarkable success. As his original mentor noted, “Two things seemed pretty apparent to me. One was that in order to be a pilot a man had got to learn more than any one man ought to be allowed to know; and the other was, that he must learn it all over again in a different way every twenty-four hours.”1When I think back to what the Papers were then and what they have become now, the size and scope of the accomplishment is startling, all ultimately overseen and steered by Bob. There are now more than 7000 letters written by members of the Clemens family housed in the collection, and something like 17,000 letters written to them—all catalogued and many transcribed; approximately 600 still unpublished manuscripts in the vaults; and brilliantly and copiously annotated original publications such as Twain's 3 volume Autobiography. There's an ambitious and growing list of edited print Twain editions primarily through UC Press, most credited to Bob's editorial oversight, and new material continuing to come into the increasingly limited amount of physical space.What always impressed me most, even from those early days, has been the steady stream of national and international scholars arriving to do basic research at the Papers; all manner of visitors have been made welcome in that privileged fourth floor collection. Who knows what Bob thought of some of the projects and questions we posed—he simply treated us with respect, with warmth and good humor, and with answers to even the most obscure questions. Bob has personally assisted me with many different projects over the years; however, the one that stands out most in my memory was when Ronald Jenn was here from France and the two of us were going daily to the library to try to reconstruct the many sources Twain used (and annotated with extensive marginalia) in preparing to write Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. In a January 1895 reflection about finishing the novel (unpublished until Paine included it in his 1923 anthology Europe and Elsewhere), Mark Twain wrote: “All the litter and the confusion are gone. The piles of dusty reference books are gone from the chairs, the maps from the floor; the chaos of letters, manuscripts, notebooks, paper knives, pipes, matches, photographs, tobacco jar, and cigar boxes is gone from the writing table.”2Although the maps and photographs Twain consulted have long since disappeared, we hoped that some of his “dusty reference books” were still extant. And what better place to begin searching for them than at the Mark Twain Papers? As Ronald and I sat in the reading room, Bob presented us with a steady feast of source material. “Have you seen this one?” he'd ask, placing some remarkable French text before us. Next, bearing a different book in hand, he'd suggest: “You might want to take a look at this.” Like a magician, he pulled book after book—not out of a hat—but from the treasure trove of MTP's vault. Once again I am reminded how the original cub pilot understood the task of running the river: “Now if my ears hear aright, I have not only to get the names of all the towns and islands and bends, and so on, by heart, but I must even keep up a warm personal acquaintanceship with every old snag and one-limbed cotton-wood and obscure wood pile that ornaments the banks of the river for twelve hundred miles.”3 Due in large part to Bob's assistance (and his intimate knowledge of the contents of MTP's vault), Ronald and I were able to identify at least twelve different sources instrumental in the composition of Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc.As herself one of the old snags (who not coincidentally grew up on the banks of the Mississippi), I have always been greeted with quiet encouragement in exploring some of those obscure wood piles at the Mark Twain Papers. I could not possibly have more respect for all that Bob represents and has accomplished through his long career and has done for the fortunate scholars who have come into this amazing archive. No one could have done a better job of bringing this ship safely down the magnificent ever-changing river than Bob Hirst. I am ever in his debt.