In "Artemus Ward", by Jim Zwick (Online): "No historical figure has generated more heated discussion in Twain circles in the last few years than Charles F. Browne. Better known by his pseudonym, Artemus Ward, Browne was described in Andrew Hoffman's 1997 biography, Inventing Mark Twain, as 'a flamboyant member of the New York bohemian scene and one of the most frankly homosexual men in the entire literary circle.' Hoffman's suggestion that Twain and Ward developed a 'flash romantic attachment' during Ward's 1863 visit to Virginia City, Nevada, seemed to bring out the worst in people. Many responded as if Hoffman had somehow attacked them personally. Artemus Ward became a focus of attention but that attention did little if anything to illuminate Ward, his works, or his influence on Twain's career."

The respected early 20th century writer, Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-1937), is the author of the definitive Twain biography of its time, Mark Twain: A Biography, 1912.

In Chapter 43 of this book, pp.238-242, Paine describes the visit of Browne to Virginia City, Nevada, where Samuel Clemens (a year younger than Browne) was a reporter on The Virginia City Ledger. Browne and Clemens became "boon companions". Paine described their night of drinking with companions at an expensive restaurant. Afterward, Browne and Clemens took a stroll on the nearby rooftops, and were nearly shot by a policeman the street who mistook them for "burglars". Browne left Virginia City reluctantly.

Then Paine writes: "A day or two later he [Browne] wrote from Austin, Nevada, to his new-found comrade [Clemens] as 'My dearest Love,' recalling the happiness of his stay: 'I shall always remember Virginia as a bright spot in my existence, as all others must or rather cannot be, as it were.'"

Paine's account of this intimate addressing ("My Dearest Love") is perhaps that basis of Hoffman's comment about a "flash romantic attachment" between Browne and Clemens during this Virginia City visit. Certainly, this would be consistent with that observation.

One may speculate that, if, later in New York City, Browne became known as "a flamboyant member of the New York bohemian scene and one of the most frankly homosexual men in the entire literary circle", then Clemens may have become concerned about his brief association with Browne and their occasional correspondence.

For the record seems to show that Clemens was much indebted to Browne:

1. Browne twice discovered Clemens as a writer:
   • In 1856, Browne (a 17-year-old editor for xxxxx), arranged the publication of a tale by the unknown 16-year-old Clemens;
   • In the 1862 Virginia City, Clemens recognized Clemen's writing ability and urged him to seek publiication. A critic later remarked of this, "As a genius, [Clemens] had been dreaming until Artemus Ward came to Washoe and aroused him to his possibilities."
2. Browne asked Clemens to conribute a story to Browne's new boo, but it arrived late. However, by Browne's incfluence, Clemen's story was published in The Atlanic Monthly: "Jim Smiley's Jumping Frog", later reworked as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", the work which first won him fame for Samuel Clemens, under the pseudonym, "Mark Twain".
3. Years later, Clemens paid his debts by an extensive lecture tour, and his style of lecturing was based upon what he learned from a small publication on this subject by Browne.

If the older Clemens became concerned about others suspecting his "manhood", this would explain the ungrateful way Clemens wrote (Mark Twain in Eruption, Clemens, p. 201) about Browne as some one he slightly knew and classified him among humorists "as one whose writings and sayings were once in everybody's mouth but are now heard of no more and are no longer mentioned".