He was always proud of
the celebrity that story achieved; but he never sought to claim the
credit for himself. He freely admits that it was not Mark Twain, but
the frog, that became celebrated. The author, alas, remained in
obscurity!
Carleton afterwards confessed that he had lost the chance of a life
--time by giving The Jumping Frog away; but Mark Twain's old friend,
Charles Henry Webb, came to the rescue and published it. About four
thousand copies were sold in three years; but the real fame of the story
was in its newspaper and magazine notoriety. In 1872 it was translated
into the 'Revue des Deux Mondes'; and it was almost as widely read in
England, India, and Australia as it was in America.
Meantime Mark Twain was still awaiting the rewards of journalism, and
doing literary hack work of one sort or another. In 1866 the
proprietors of the 'Sacramento Union' employed him to write a series of
letters from the Sandwich Islands. The purpose of these letters was to
give an account of the sugar industry.
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