I want to thank Kevin and Mark  for their moving tributes to Barry Crimmins. Reading Crimmins was always a bracing adventure. He managed to channel Mark Twain in original and powerful ways.  I’d like to take this occasion to remind folks on the Mark Twain Forum of a piece he contributed to the Japanese journal Mark Twain Studies in 2006 for an international forum on “The War-Prayer” in that journal (edited by Takayuki Tatsumi and myself).  His  essay, “The Sermon on the Mark,” was reprinted in the Reprise section of the Journal of Transnational American Studies, where it  is available online at https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5nz25228

Let me quote some of what he said:
“Despite repeated attempts to sanitize Mark Twain’s already pure messages, some of us still read his works that sass the ever-oppressive status quo. A status quo that’s been unbearable for a landslide majority of human beings ever since Twain took up their cause long ago. His allegedly glum summations have provided booster shots of hope at the most unexpected times. When  'The War-Prayer’ was discovered by my generation during the Vietnam War, we found someone we could trust who was over 30. Over 130!
"The War-Prayer’ is the final word on war. It is a truly holy work because it peacefully resists the frothing madness required to stand on an altar to promote war. It mocks the brainlessness of nationalism and challenges people of any land to take a truly brave stand by separating themselves from the parochial mob to join anyone from anywhere smart and courageous enough to work toward resolving differences with reason rather than violence.
"Even after learning how he was muffled, if not silenced, and knowing that many of the great works of his later life are still universally dismissed, even though mostly unread, I chose a course that even the premiere navigator of American letters couldn’t safely negotiate. But as they like to say in the war movies, I’d go to hell for that guy. Although it is more fun going with him and so that is why I always tuck a volume or two of Twain into my suitcase before I hit the road to take my argument for the improvement of the human condition onto the stage, page, or airwaves.
“I’ll never achieve even a fraction of what Mark Twain accomplished but I can aspire to emulate his bravery when it comes to be one of 'those rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness.’ Since first reading  ‘The War-Prayer’ I have wandered in a ‘wilderness of flags’ for over 35 years. I have performed and written material in the ever-darkening shadow of a Stars and Stripes that has been dragged through the mud, blood and treachery of one unjust war after the next. At times I’ve inoculated myself from an audience’s silence and/or jeers by thinking, ‘It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.’……
“It is a joyous and rare day when another ‘War-Prayer’ passage does not impale my heart,  “..tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling faces with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst….for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives,  protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!"
"There’s never a day when I fail to think of the author of the greatest spiritual offering since the Sermon on the Mount and realize that regardless of what a century of jingoists would have you believe, Mark Twain was anything but a lunatic, because there was perfect sense in what he said.”

Read the entire piece.  There was perfect sense in what Barry Crimmins said. I will miss his voice.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin






On Mar 1, 2018, at 10:27 AM, MARK DAWIDZIAK <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:

Kevin has said this far more eloquently than I could. I heard the sad news a few hours ago and have been struggling for words ever since. And the flat of it is, Barry would understand that, although he was seldom at a loss for words. He came of age as a humorist and satirist at time when cerebral comedy had a place on the comedy circuit -- when it was assumed that at least a segment of the audience wanted to be challenged by intellectual and passionately crafted material. He remained fiercely outspoken, even when there were fewer outlets for that voice to be heard. That sometimes rubbed people the wrong way, but, although we fell out of contact in recent years, I never stopped being impressed by the Niagara of caring behind the provocative front. And, yes, part of that caring was that Barry absolutely and completely loved Mark Twain's writing. This was not a casual interest. Nor was it expressed casually. I still can remember his great delight over and enthusiasm for the publication of Kent Rasmussen's "Mark Twain A to Z." Just the sheer joy that such a volume existed. I also remember the calls when he was writing newspaper pieces and wanted advice about dealing with editors (as if I've ever figured that one out). I think the 1997 conference was the only Elmira gathering he attended . . . or was it 2001? Memory plays tricks . . . about the time, not the person.


   On Thursday, March 1, 2018 11:26 AM, Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>> wrote:


I was sorry to read of the passing of long-time Forum friend Barry Crimmins

https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2018/03/01/barry-crimmins-comedian-and-sex-abuse-activist-dead-at-64.html

I believe I met him only once, many years ago

I hope his better friends here will share their memories of a great person

Taylor