The publication of the Grant Memoirs had been a dazzling triumph.

Mark Twain had become recognized, not only as America's most

distinguished author, but as its most envied publisher. And now,

with his fiftieth birthday, had come this laurel from Holmes, last

of the Brahmins, to add a touch of glory to all the rest. We feel

his exaltation in his note of acknowledgment.

****

To Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, in Boston:

DEAR MR. HOLMES,--I shall never be able to tell you the half of how

proud you have made me. If I could you would say you were nearly paid

for the trouble you took. And then the family: If I can convey the

electrical surprise and gratitude and exaltation of the wife and the

children last night, when they happened upon that Critic where I had,

with artful artlessness, spread it open and retired out of view to see

what would happen--well, it was great and fine and beautiful to see, and

made me feel as the victor feels when the shouting hosts march by;

and if you also could have seen it you would have said the account was

squared. For I have brought them up in your company, as in the company

of a warm and friendly and beneficent but far-distant sun; and so, for

you to do this thing was for the sun to send down out of the skies the

miracle of a special ray and transfigure me before their faces. I knew

674

The Letters Of Mark Twain, Complete