Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“There are three infallible ways of pleasing an author, and the three form a rising scale of compliment: 1, to tell him you have read one of his books; 2, to tell him you have read all of his books; 3, to ask him to let you read the manuscript of his forthcoming book.”
- Date
- 1894
- Local voice
- Epigraph / fictional source voice · Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar
Meaning of “There are three infallible ways of pleasing an…”
The rising scale jokes about authorial vanity by making access to an unpublished manuscript the greatest compliment, because it flatters both the writer’s output and expectation of future work.
Where does it come from?
Pudd’nhead Wilson, Chapter XI epigraph; Twain presents the three-part compliment as a Calendar maxim about authors.
Why the local voice matters
Twain presents this wording as a chapter-epigraph Calendar maxim. The Calendar is a fictional framing device / source voice rather than uncomplicated autobiography by Twain.
