TICKET GOOD FOR STEAMSHIP AMERICA, SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW YORK

[TWAIN, MARK] [Clemens, S. L.] C. A. Transit Company. TICKET GOOD FOR STEAMSHIP AMERICA, SAN FRANCISCO TO NEW YORK, VIA NICARAGUA. San Francisco, Central American Transit Company, 1866. Oblong printed ticket blank with stub still attached (4 x 12 inches). Fine. On December 15, 1866, Twain boarded the "America" in San Francisco, steamed to Nicaragua, arriving on December 30, crossed the Isthmus, and boarded the `San Francisco' and steamed on to New York, arriving on January 12, where he soon published his first book and began in earnest his literary career. See Kaplan's MR. CLEMENS, MARK TWAIN (p. 13-19, beginning on the first page of text) for a good account of this historic moment. Also see Meltzer, MARK TWAIN HIMSELF (pp.80-1) for a copy of the newspaper printing of the `America's' passenger list including Twain among the eighty passengers, and an account of the trip. It was on this voyage that Twain met Captain `Ned' Wakeman (see BAL 3379) who was the model for Ned Blakely in ROUGHING IT (1872), Captain Saltmarsh in THE AMERICAN CLAIMANT (1892), Captain Stormfield in 1909, etc. (cf. Kaplan, SINGULAR MARK TWAIN, p. 169) and whom Twain recalled fondly in his autobiography. This ticket is the earliest obtainable Twain-related California imprint, other than a couple of very rare newspapers. BAL lists only two imprints for Twain earlier than this ticket, both published in New York: the first is a unique copy of an 1865 twilight book, the other an 1866 booklet with a Twain contribution (only two copies sold in the last fifteen years, each for more than $10,000). Twain's ticket for the trip apparently does not survive because passengers were required to turn in their tickets after crossing the Isthmus and were issued a second ticket for boarding the connecting steamer to New York. The instructions to surrender the old ticket are plainly printed on the ticket itself. This unused ticket from the ticket agent's original ledger book containing the unissued tickets from the America's last voyage of 1866 is an extraordinary survival.