What's in a Name?

The History of Mark Twain's play, Colonel Sellers, is an intriguing story with more plot twists and turns than the play itself. "The Meteoric Rise and Curious Disappearance of Colonel Mulberry Sellers" documents this tale of literary piracy and personal conflict. It is a saga that leads from the quiet setting of Hartford, Connecticut, to the wharves of San Francisco; and from the theatres of New York to the courtrooms of Salt Lake City.

In researching this piece, one thing became apparent — when it came to the names of the principal people and characters involved with Colonel Sellers, ambiguity was the byword. Of course Mark Twain was really Samuel L. Clemens (that is simple enough), but the web of pseudonyms and erroneous identifications in source materials does not stop there. Besides Twain, the other dominant personage in this story is an actor by the name of John T. Raymond. Raymond was only his stage name, to be sure; his real name was John O'Brien. But yet, "Raymond" was to become his real name in later life, by a decree of the court.

Then there was the would-be playwright from San Francisco, Gilbert S. Densmore, or George B. Dinsmore, or G. B. Densmore, depending upon the source material. Twain's own biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine, was the culprit who is quoted most often with the incorrect name of "Gilbert S. Densmore," and the "Dinsmore" error may have been of typographical origins traced to an 1896 biographical sketch of Raymond which was used as a source for George C. D. Odell's mammoth work, The Annals of the New York Stage. The San Francisco papers identify the playwright as G. B. Densmore and this is supported by publication listings for the period showing G. B. Densmore as the author of one book (The Chinese of California. San Francisco: Pettit and Russ, 1880.), and the coauthor of a play (Fates and Furies! A Romantic Play in Six Tableaux. San Francisco: Francis and Valentine, 1877.).

The title of the play itself varied from The Gilded Age to Colonel Sellers, depending upon where and when it played, and the manuscripts, which the text in this volume is edited from, echo this confusion. One account even refers to the play as The Almighty Dollar, although I have not found any evidence to support the idea that the play was ever billed as such.

Even the character of Colonel Sellers went through three name changes before the first name of "Mulberry" was settled upon. This is best explained by Twain, himself, in a preface to the first edition of his book, The American Claimant:

EXPLANATORY

The Colonel Mulberry Sellers here reintroduced to the public is the same person who appeared as Eschol Sellers in the first edition of the tale entitled The Gilded Age, years ago, and as Beriah Sellers in the subsequent editions of the same book, and finally as Mulberry Sellers in the drama played afterward by John T. Raymond.


The named was changed from Eschol to Beriah to accommodate an Eschol Sellers who rose up out of the vasty deeps of uncharted space and preferred his request—backed by a threat of a libel suit—then went on his way appeased, and came no more. In the play Beriah had to be dropped to satisfy another member of the race, and Mulberry was substituted in hope that the objectors would be tired by that time and let it pass unchallenged. So far it has occupied the field in peace; therefore we chance it once again, feeling reasonably safe, this time, under the shelter of the statute of limitations.

MARK TWAIN
Hartford, 1891

In fact, the San Francisco reviews of Densmore's production of The Gilded Age list the lead character as "Eschol Sellers," indicating that Densmore worked from a copy of the first edition of the novel.

The existing play manuscripts also disagree on the name of another character who, in this text, is called "Colonel Selby." In one version, he is called "Colonel Shelby"; but the cast lists and reviews of the time indicate that "Selby" was, in fact, the name used in production.

So one can ask, "What is in a name?"

In the case of pseudonyms, they may reflect a boyhood fondness for riverboating, or a young man's desire to hide his ethnic background because of prevailing social conditions.

In the case of the erroneous identification or misspelling of a minor historical figure's name (that persists for over seventy years), it indicates the problem researchers face in accepting an established, yet secondhand, source as gospel; and it shows the power of typographical errors to subtly change the fabric of history, if left unchecked.

Perhaps a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but if someone credited the dandelion with the rose's beauty and fragrance, it would be a disservice to the rose.