Always interesting to see Mark Twain in the News.
Arianne Laidlaw
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Literature: Mark Twain and F. Scott Fitzgerald -- newsmakers
again<http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/03/it-was-the-best-of-times-it-was-the-worst-of-times-ooops-thats-from-charles-dickens-this-is-supposed-to-be-abou.html>
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March 9, 2011 | 10:31 am
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
Oops. That's from Charles Dickens. This is supposed to be about Mark Twain
and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Oh well, if the quote fits.
[image: Mark Twain]<http://opinion.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c7de353ef014e5fbfe6a5970c-popup>On
Tuesday, The Times' Larry Gordon wrote a fascinating Column
One<http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-adv-twain-20110308,0,6686828.story>
about
the unexpected, runaway success of the "Autobiography of Mark
Twain<http://www.latimes.com/topic/arts-culture/literature/mark-twain-hph61.topic>"
produced by UC Berkeley's Mark Twain Papers & Project. As Gordon reported:
The first volume of the planned trilogy has remained a national bestseller
since its release in November, 100 years after Twain's death at the age of
74. There are nearly half a million copies in print, putting it as high as
No. 4 on the Los Angeles Times' hardback nonfiction list and No. 2 on the
New York Times<http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/new-york-times-ORCRP010822.topic>'
list.
I'd call that a contender for "the best of times" (literature category).
Especially since the Twain project is "the little engine that could" of the
scholarly world.
From Gordon's story:
The Twain project has an annual budget of $600,000, including $190,000 from
UC. Among its private donors is UC Berkeley's Class of 1958, which gave $1
million to mark its 50th reunion, and the Koret Foundation. And it receives
crucial backing, $7 million over four decades, from the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
In other words, a brilliant, bestselling work about perhaps America's
greatest writer has been produced for about what we spend in one hour on the
war in Afghanistan.
Quick, someone call Capitol Hill and tell them to hold off on cutting the
budget of the National Endowment for the Humanities. At least until Twain
volumes two and three come out -– now scheduled for 2012 and 2014. Gotta be
some "Huck Finn" fans up on the Hill (though hopefully not of the proposed
"n-word"-expunged version).
But these are also the "worst of times" too, right?
[image: F. Scott]<http://opinion.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c7de353ef0147e31ab66e970b-popup>That's
where F. Scott Fitzgerald comes in.
Newsday reported
<http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/gatsby-place-joins-doomed-mansions-list-1.2735426>
that
the mansion where Jay Gatsby's beloved Daisy Buchanan lived is going to be
razed.
OK, it's not really Daisy's mansion. It's actually a house on Long Island
that some people think inspired
Fitzgerald.<http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2011/03/fitzgerald-gatsby-house-doomed.html>
Called Lands End, the 20,000-square-foot place sits on 13 acres in Sands
Point, N.Y., on Long Island Sound. And, according to Newsday, Winston
Churchill, the Marx brothers, Dorothy Parker and the Duke and Duchess of
Windsor attended parties there. And, local lore has it, Fitzgerald drank
there too.
You'll recall that in the book, Fitzgerald portrays the 1920s as an era of
decayed social and moral values, evidenced in its overarching cynicism,
greed, and empty pursuit of pleasure. The reckless jubilance that led to
decadent parties and wild jazz music -- epitomized in "The Great Gatsby" by
the opulent parties that Gatsby throws every Saturday night -- resulted
ultimately in the corruption of the American dream, as the unrestrained
desire for money and pleasure surpassed more noble goals.
(Or maybe you didn't recall that. I didn't either; it's been a number of
years since I read "The Great Gatsby." But thanks to Google and SparkNotes
-- from which I lifted that passage -- I had you as fooled as my college
American lit instructor.)
It's a fitting description, though, for the end of the real-life Lands End,
because what do you think will happen to the property? Yes, of course: Five
Sands Point Village has approved plans to raze it and divide the site into
lots for five custom homes -- starting at $10 million each. (No word yet on
whether the developer will keep the green light at the end of the dock.)
Greed and the empty pursuit of pleasure never go out of style.
*RELATED:*
Leave 'Huck' alone<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/06/opinion/la-ed-huckfinn-20110106>
'Huck' and 'Rent' done
wrong<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/08/opinion/la-oe-0108-rutten-20110108>
The Conversation: What's the harm of sanitizing 'Huck
Finn<http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=5&sqi=2&ved=0CC0QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fopinion.latimes.com%2Fopinionla%2F2011%2F01%2Fthe-conversation-whats-the-harm-of-sanitizing-huck-finn.html&ei=4MN3TcSgH8aqlAfW8YnKBw&usg=AFQjCNGi9RYYwvbPOhusfw03rRCq1I5Y0w>
<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jan/08/opinion/la-oe-0108-rutten-20110108>--Paul
Whitefield
*Top photo: In this undated photo, author Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens,
is shown. Credit: Associated Press file. Bottom photo: Author F. Scott
Fitzgerald poses with his wife, Zelda, and their daughter, Scottie, in their
Paris apartment on July 16, 1925. Credit: Associated Press*
--
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