King Leopold's Soliloquy - A Defense of His Congo Rule - Mark Twain
Author: Mark Twain
Date: 0100-12-31 18:00:00-06:00

Reforming the Heart of
Darkness
The Congo Reform Movement in England and the United
States
Edited by Jim Zwick

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King Leopold's Soliloquy:
A Defense of His Congo
Rule

By Mark Twain

Boston: The P. R. Warren Co., 1905.
BoondocksNet
Edition, 2001.

Mark Twain wrote King Leopold's
Soliloquy soon after Edmund Dene Morel of the English Congo Reform
Association visited him in New York in October of 1904 to ask for his help in mobilizing support for an American branch of the organization. The essay was completed by February of 1905 and submitted to Harper &
Brothers for publication. Twain probably intended it to appear in the North American Review, the prestigious journal where he had published "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," "To My
Missionary Critics," "A Defence of
General Funston," and "The Czar's
Soliloquy," but Harper & Brothers rejected King Leopold's
Soliloquy. A month before, it had rejected another of Twain's anti-imperialist writings: "The War
Prayer." Because Twain had an exclusive contract with Harper &
Brothers, he had to obtain their permission to allow the American Congo
Reform Association to publish King Leopold's Soliloquy in pamphlet form. Miscommunication about the Association's address delayed release of the manuscript until summer, and the pamphlet was not published until
September. Twain's experiences with his publisher in 1905 led him to believe that his anti-imperialist writings were being censored. "In
America -- as elsewhere -- free speech is confined to the dead," he wrote in his private notebook.

Contents

Frontispiece

It
Is I

King
Leopold's Soliloquy

An
Original Mistake

Supplementary

Some
Things the Report of the King's Commission Says

The
United States Government and the Congo State

Ought
King Leopold to Be Hanged?

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Book

Related Resources

Congo
Reform Association Circular
Jan. 8, 1906, circular suggested by
Mark Twain to promote subscription sales of King Leopold's
Soliloquy by clergy across the United States.

King
Leopold's Soliloquy Circular
Circular by the American Congo
Reform Association to advertise Twain's pamphlet.

Mark
Twain's Anti-Imperialist Writings: A Guide
A comprehensive guide to Mark Twain's anti-imperialist writings on Hawaii, the
Spanish-American and Philippine-American wars, China, Russia, and the
Congo, with biography, criticism, historical contexts, and a thorough bibliography.

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Citation: Twain, Mark. King Leopold's Soliloquy: A
Defense of His Congo Rule (Boston: P. R. Warren Co., 1905).
http://www.boondocksnet.com/congo/kls/ In Jim Zwick, ed., Reforming the
Heart of Darkness: The Congo Reform Movement in England and the United
States. http://www.boondocksnet.com/congo/

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