TR

Today would be Teddy Roosevelt's birthday. The greatest showman of Roosevelt's time was Mark Twain. Twain hated TR, and took any available opportunity to rail against the president.

"Our people have adored this showy charlatan as perhaps no impostor of his brood has been adored since the Golden Calf, so it is to be expected that the Nation will want him back again after he is done hunting other wild animals heroically in Africa, with the safeguard and advertising equipment of a park of artillery and a brass band."
- Letter written 3/6/1908 (reprinted in The New York Times 5/31/1912)

Roosevelt in turn hated Twain, his tactic was to pose as the man of action versus the lounging critic.  Their "battles" served them each very well.

I've been reading Philip McFarland's "Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt and the Arrival of the a New Century" 

The book is a dual biography of Twain and TR, filled with anecdotes and a long look back at the US's rise in the early 20th century from an agrarian backwater to international powerhouse.  I'm finding the book inconsistent.  The author does not take sides in the TR/Twain battle and tells his story well .  Where he fails is in trying too hard to make facts, dates and his story fit.

Toad

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

"But the truth is, that when a Library expels a book of mine and leaves an unexpurgated Bible lying around where unprotected youth and age can get hold of it, the deep unconscious irony of it delights me and doesn't anger me." Mark Twain

Introduced as the sidekick in Adventures of  Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn's story was finally told on this date in 1885 with the American release of  Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, perhaps the most frequently banned book in America.  Twain saw the book as a sequel to Tom Sawyer, with a serious twist. 

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a first person narrative told by Huck, set in mid 1840's Missouri, of his helping his friend Jim, a fugitive slave, escape slave holding Missouri to freedom in Ohio.  As an adolescent, Huck is able to see and speak of the injustices of slavery where adults can't, or won't.   

As Twain described Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:  "a sound heart is a surer guide than an ill-trained conscience, he goes on to describe the novel as ...a book of mine where a sound heart and deformed conscience  come into collision and the conscience suffers defeat."

Only 20 years earlier, on this same date, Jefferson Davis was named provisional President of the Confederate States of America, leading to the American Civil War or as was long anticipated in antebellum America, the continuation of the English Civil War on American soil.  Either way the Cavaliers lost.

Toad

The Storyteller

I descend from a long line of shanty Irish, each of us capable of crying over a good steak. There are events, people and places in my life, the memory of which causes me to well up, often to the bafflement of those around me. Tuesday's get together with ADG, formerly of Maxminus will forever be one of those occasions.

I did not, even a second, consider or attempt to talk him into returning to the fray. He stopped for the same reasons you will. When I retired he hounded me back, and I won't return the favor. Nor will I stop, for fear of his promise to hound me back again. He does know of, misses, appreciates, and returns the love and depth of feeling of his many readers.

Should you be interested, you can peek here to see what he is up to on Tumblr.

So what did we talk about? Family, kids, holes in our library shelves, mine you will notice were filled in by the pile of books in my arms.

Then he bowled me over with a feather. "You need this", he said and handed over a small box.

Wm Hocker is an architect turned tin model soldier maker. This is one set of a very limited edition called The Storyteller which includes Mark Twain and some of his creations.

Tom and Huck

The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

The Man in White

I have tears in my eyes writing this. Meeting the likes of ADG is why I show up here most days. It was one of the highlights of my life.

Toad

the white suit is from Perlis, in NOLA. The tie is Ellie Stager's

Uncle Jim

I had the privilege to attend a funeral recently, the burial held in the same cemetery where many of my kin are buried. It felt odd. I hadn't been there in over 40 years then twice in a month.

Last time I was there I liberated a brochure which included a map of where local notables were buried and highlights of the grounds. Amongst the finery is an art glass door on a mausoleum. The glass is from the private chapel of James Clemens Jr, of Saint Louis.

The chapel today

Clemens' door

Clemens was uncle to a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Those who recognize the name, may recall that the pilot served on the steamship Pennsylvania, and had set his younger brother Henry up as a mud clerk (apprentice) on the same boat. An altercation with the captain led the older brother to leave the boat while in New Orleans. The younger stayed on, with the two brothers planning to meet at their uncle Jim's house (ostensibly to worship in his private chapel).

Uncle Jim's house, chapel is on the right

While on its return to St. Louis, the Pennsylvania exploded, killing Henry. An event his brother blamed himself and for which he never forgave himself.

On this date in 1910 James Clemens Jr. of St. Louis would have received news his nephew, former river boat pilot, Samuel L. Clemens of Redding, Connecticut had died.

Of course we know him better as Mark Twain, the original Man in White.

Toad

Sam's Birthday

happy Birthday Mr. Clemons. I'm still wraslin with the Autobiography.

Toad

The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol 1

Throughout his life Sam Clemons worried about money. He earned and lost several fortunes and his need for cash made him vulnerable to scam artists on three continents. One source of cash he felt he could count on were the residuals from his writings, but as the end of his life neared he feared what would happen to his family as the copyrights expired.

You may recall, after his wife died, Clemons, the man in white, appeared for the first time, so dressed, in mid winter at a Congressional hearing, which was considering the recommendation that copyrights be extended. He had strong opinions on that subject. At the time he still had two daughters to provide for.

To meet his family's future needs, he wrote several books, with the express intent that they be published after his death, spaced in such a way that his girls financial needs were covered.

By the time Clemons died, the youngest of his two remaining daughters had died, leaving his high Victorian, high maintenance daughter to watch over his literary estate, and it was she whom for the rest of her life controlled all elements of the literary legacy of Mark Twain. Guard it she did, with the zeal of a convert.

Books that Clemons expected would be published soon after his death were delayed for decades by his daughter. Letters from the Earth, edited for publication in 1939 was postponed until 1962. This week, 100 years after his death, the Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol 1, edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and the Mark Twain Project was published.

It will sell well, especially over the holidays, and it is unlikely to be read in its entirety by anyone not paid to do so. Whatever its literary merits, the Autobiography is about the size of a King James Bible, weighs 5 pounds, and has what appears to be the same font and spacing as a Manhattan telephone directory.

I do not yet need reading glasses but will by the time I'm deep into this.

My recommendation is try your library first, if they don't have it, reread Huckleberry Finn.

Toad

The Man in White

Atop my stack of summer reading was Mark Twain, Man in White by Michael Shelden.

Whatever I know of Samuel Clemons biography is deeply skewed by a lifetime of watching portrayals by Hal Holbrook, and living within easy driving distance of his boyhood home in Hannibal. In a word or two I know practically nothing.

My mental image is of a professional lecturer, comic and wordsmith who always wore a white. Didn't happen that way.


The white suit began several years after his beloved wife died, he was 71 years old. Tired of mourning, sick of reminders of the death of his wife and son and daughter, Clemons wished to live the rest of his life to the fullest. His high Victorian daughter Clara was aghast.

He kicked off his white suit in December 1906 at a hearing of Joint Congressional Committee on Patents, where it received extensive news coverage. The hearing involved extending the life of an author;s copyright protection. In his later years he still had to earn a living to support his household as well as 2 daughters,spoiled Clara & Jean who suffered from epilepsy, and the copyrights of his earliest works were nearing expiration.

Much like Tom Wolff Jr's white suits many years later, Twain's was a thumb in the eye to convention.

I loved this book. In 3 years Twain covered a lot of ground, fought a lot of battles, was cheated and fought back. Mostly, “he wanted to go out in the grand fashion of a man who had made a deep impression on the world, and who was convinced that nothing about him – including the manner of his passing – would be forgotten. (NYT, 3/22/2010)

The closing of any life is sad, but Twain fought the good fight and Mr. Shelden tells the story magnificently.

Rest in Peace

Today is the 100th anniversary of the death of Samuel L. Clemons.

Like many kids of my generation, my first exposure to Mark Twain was Hal Holbrook's portrayal on television. In the mid '60's PBS was littered with Hal doing his one man Twain show. I came to Mark Twain via television, not his books.



Later, I found his books. For the life of me I will never understand book censorship. Busybodies, and improvers annoy me to no end. One of the few things I am intolerant of is intolerance. I had to read his books just because. Whenever a self appointed do gooder tells me no, I say yes. Mark Twain's writings have become one of the treasures of my life.

I especially enjoy his later works, mostly short stories, but most of all the book, Twain's family waited until 1962 to publish, "Letters From The Earth".

This is Twain at his full element. Completed near his death, its a diatribe against organized religion, a parody of the the book of Exodus, and beautiful satire.

If you are unfamiliar with "Letters From The Earth", it is on line here.

As Mark Twain wrote, "Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand."

Toad