Eyes: Susy, Clara, reporters, and my color photograph all say blue eyes. 
Twain wrote "gray" on his passport forms. What Barb says about our 
self-perceptions of our eye color is interesting. I think my eyes look 
gray-green, even gray-tan, but everyone else says "hazel" so that's what 
I report when asked.

Hair: Howells says a "splendid shock of red hair." Twain says "auburn" 
which he equated with red hair in CY, and says he was born with red 
hair, and was extremely interested in "scientific" theories about red 
hair. But he reported "brown" or "dark brown" on his passport form. I 
wonder if self-perception played a role in this as well. I've heard 
rumors from everyone I know that I have a bald spot on the back of my 
head, but I've never seen it.

Let's stir the pot: How tall was Mark Twain? I've seen more than one 
claim of 5 feet 8 inches, but I forget the sources. However, there is 
some photographic evidence in the form of full-length photos. The photo 
of Twain in front of his boyhood home in 1902 could be useful, but 
recall that both the facade and the street have been altered somewhat 
since that time. Placing a caliper on him and comparing the result to 
other measurements in that photo might yield his height. Ditto with the 
photo of him in front of the Park Church in Elmira. Again, the steps and 
sidewalk have been changed, but other measurements might suffice. There 
are other photos, of course, that also contain reference points that 
still survive. Keep in mind he may have been shorter late in life. Which 
reminds me . . .

I once gathered notes for an article on Mark Twain's gait. As so often 
with Twain, there is a story to explain it that does not withstand much 
scrutiny. The story goes that his ambling gait was the result of his 
days as a steamboat pilot. That's nonsense. Steamboats did not toss 
around on waves like ocean-going vessels. His trips aboard ocean-going 
vessels were not long enough to induce a permanent case of "sea-legs" 
either. I had my podiatrist and my orthopedic surgeon view in slow 
motion Edison's film of Twain sauntering around Stormfield, and they 
agreed that he had no foot problems, but very likely had arthritis in 
his hip that accounted for that distinctive gait. The medical terms they 
used to describe all of this escape my memory. The casts of his hands 
don't show much evidence of arthritis, so it seems to have been 
localized in his hip. This could be the result of old-age, or perhaps a 
hip injury early in life. There is some evidence he had that shuffling 
gait early in his stage career. Such a condition might also tend to 
shorten his stature late in life as it progressed. None of this seemed 
of sufficient substance to make into an essay, but it's just one more 
Twain myth that needed debunking. So, consider this my essay on our 5' 
8" red-headed blue-eyed arthritic humorist/literary giant.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
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Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
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------ Original Message ------
From: "Clay Shannon" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 7/9/2019 7:14:02 PM
Subject: Re: carrot-top Twain

>Yes, self-examination can be "tricky"; I swear on a stack of pancakes that my hair is still dark brown when I look in the mirror after a shower. But if anybody takes a picture of me, especially if they use flash, it shows me grey as a rat.
>- B. Clay Shannon
>
>     On Tuesday, July 9, 2019, 03:35:00 PM PDT, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>  I don't think Clemens would have purposely mislead on his passport
>applications.  That eye color may be just the way he perceived himself when
>he looked in a mirror. (Eye pigments in the iris compress or spread apart
>when the pupil changes, sometimes changing the eye color a bit. Certain
>emotions also can change both pupil size and iris color.)  On p. 105 of the
>UCal edition of FAMILY SKETCH, Susy describes her father as having "kind
>blue eyes."  In spite of a possible self-image of having "gray eyes", the
>historical "eye witnesses" say otherwise.
>
>Barb
>
>