Has everyone seen this already?



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    How Mark Twain became Mark Twain: The amazing story of the lectures
that made him a superstar

*salon.com* - When the Ajax made its second voyage in March 1866, Mark
Twain was on board. He had persuaded the editors of the prestigious
Sacramento Union to pay him to write correspondence from the islands. The
trip came at an opportune time: Twain had been getting sick of California
and the indigent, itinerant life he led there. Despite the success of his
jumping frog story, he remained a poor freelancer. "I am tired being a
beggar," he wrote his brother, "tired being chained to this accursed
homeless desert." In Hawaii he hoped to find a new world to explore, and
the chance to capitalize on his recent triumph.
<http://www.salon.com/2014/03/22/how_mark_twain_became_mark_twain_the_amazing_story_of_the_lectures_that_made_him_a_superstar/>
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