Yesterday, I made the long drive, about 4 ½ hours, from Pennsylvania to
Hartford to see Kevin’s presentation on how Sam Clemens found his pen name.
I moved to PA from Western MA in the early 90s, and my daughter grew up
about 20 miles north of Hartford, so I used to make that drive almost every
weekend for years.  It brought back many memories, good and bad, to be
driving the length of I-84 again.

 

I got to the building below the Mark Twain House that serves as a visitors
center too late to have stopped for a meal, so I was happy to find a light
dinner was available for attendees.  I was also happy to meet the very
friendly Steve Courtney and a lady whose name I didn’t get who seemed to be
running the event.  Both were very welcoming and charming.  I then sat at a
small table by myself to eat, but was immediately joined by three very
friendly and lovely ladies.  We had an interesting conversation that started
with the Columbian Exposition of 1893 (apparently the topic of an earlier
Trouble Begins lecture they had attended).  One of the ladies said that she
had attended the 1939 World’s Fair, and I said I’d been to the 1964 World’s
Fair, and it became a really delightful time.

 

Then we were called in for the presentation, and I must say Kevin didn’t
disappointment.  His topic followed up on his 2012 Mark Twain Journal
article, in which he pointed out an instance of the term Mark Twain being
used as a proper name for a comic character in a brief Vanity Fair piece
from 1861 and argued that Sam Clemens likely got the name from that piece.
He promised photographic evidence that places Sam Clemens just 10 paces from
that Vanity Fair; I must say that that promise, coupled with Kevin’s
astonishing talent for unearthing previously unknown photos and manuscripts,
made me wonder if I was about to see a photo of Clemens from 1863 in which a
copy of the magazine could be seen lying on a table nearby.  Nothing so
direct.  Instead, Kevin used photographs from Carson City of that time,
along with contemporaneous advertisements, to show that when Clemens was in
Carson City at various times in the early 1860s, he would have stepped off
the stage literally right next door to a shop that sold not only tobacco,
but also magazines.  Those magazines, as Kevin proved using advertisements
of the specific shop, not only included Vanity Fair, but also back issues.
Thus, Kevin succeeded in placing Sam Clemens within 10 paces of the shop
that likely carried the specific issue of the specific humor magazine that
used Mark Twain as a given name.  Of course, even Kevin acknowledged that we
don’t yet have direct evidence that shows Clemens reading that specific
magazine piece and having an as yet uninvented light bulb switch on over his
head.  But short of that Kevin’s detective work is brilliant, and his
Columbo-like doggedness may yet find the light bulb moment.

 

There is a lot more to Kevin’s argument than I can present here, and he
presented it in a very entertaining way, with many digressions that
demonstrated his incredible breadth and depth of Twain knowledge, and with
lots of humorous ways of making his points.  The guy’s a Texan, and he knows
how to talk!  And how to tell a story.  All in all, I learned some and I
enjoyed it all.  Well done, Kevin.

 

By the way, the actor who played Sam Clemens on Bonanza was Howard Duff.

 

As an aside, I’ve been to the Mark Twain House many times; the first time
was in late 1972, I think not long after it had opened to the public.  My
wife and I were there last year, and that was the first time I was ever in
the building below the House that I’m calling the visitors center because I
don’t know it’s official name.  I like that building very much.  It’s not
only well appointed with a beautiful auditorium, it also has a nice bookshop
and exhibits, and probably other areas of interest I haven’t seen yet.  And
very helpful people at the information desk.  I also like that it sits below
the House and allows views of the House from angles I had never seen before.

 

I hope to be able to make the long drive again and enjoy many other
presentations as The Trouble Begins in Hartford. 

 

Carl