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Jumping Frogs
How the Story Came to Be

Like many writers, not all of the fantastic stories Mark Twain wrote were strictly out of his imagination. One of his most celebrated works – and thought to be his first American masterpiece – was a story about a frog race that was inspired by a tale an old miner told Clemens one rainy day in the foothills of the Sierras.

The story was first published in the New York Saturday Press in 1865 as “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,” it was then republished in 1867 as “The Celebrated Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County” and made Mark Twain a legendary writer of the West.

From his notebooks kept at the time, scholars have learned about Clemens’ sources and experiences outside of the printed novels and stories.

Notebook entry about the "Jumping Frog" story February 1865

In early December 1864 Clemens went to Jackass Hill to stay with friends who were pocket mining for gold. For several weeks in January and February, Clemens and his companions stayed at nearby Angel's Camp, in Calaveras County. Confined indoors by the continuous winter rain, they listened to miners and other residents telling tales from the local folklore. Clemens recorded several of these in his notebook, which later became the source of much material for literary works that span his career. The first note he used is shown here.

Coleman with his jumping frog—bet stranger $50—stranger had no frog, & C got him one—in the meantime stranger filled C's frog full of shot & he couldn't jump—the stranger's frog won.

Written in blue ink across the preceding passage:]

Wrote this story for Artemus—his idiot publisher, Carleton gave it to Clapp's Saturday Press.

Clemens writes home about the "Jumping Frog" story 20 January 1866 [misdated 1865]

Artemus Ward, a well-known humorist, asked Clemens for a contribution to his forthcoming book, to be issued in New York by George Carleton. Clemens wrote "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" and sent it east, but it arrived too late to be included in the book. Carleton forwarded it to the editor of the New York Saturday Press, where it was published in November 1865. The sketch "set all New York in a roar," but Clemens himself was ambivalent about it. Although here he calls it "a villainous backwoods sketch," in early 1867 he included it as the title sketch of his first book. Then less than two years later he told his fiancée, "Don't read a word in that Jumping Frog book, Livy—don't. I hate to hear that infamous volume mentioned." In December 1869, however, he confided to her that he thought it "the best humorous sketch America has produced yet."

These notebook entries, images, and interpretation are courtesy of UC Berkeley.

http://library.berkeley.edu/BANC/Exhibits/MTP/west.html