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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Tue, 22 Jan 2019 11:00:27 -0600
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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Martin Zehr <[log in to unmask]>
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Hal:   Just some general thoughts in response to your query, but the price is right.  Obvious, from his childhood on, is the factor of his openness to new experience, seen in his peripatetic ways and forays into a number of “careers.”  As far as his literacy, of course, his childhood work as a typesetter, necessarily exposing the outside world to him, including the “classics,” often used as filler in early Western newspapers.  In some respects, Sam and Abe Lincoln shared important aspects of their respective intellectual development- both had the equivalent of a first or second grade formal education, both were autodidacts of the first order, both voracious readers, and both were failures at some of their early vocational ventures, e.g., Lincoln as a store owner, Sam as a miner and real estate speculator.   Sam’s enjoyment of the public and printer’s libraries in New York and Philadelphia, at a young age (18?) and when he was foot-loose and could have done otherwise, is an indication of his appetite for learning, whetted by his typesetting experiences, as are such examples like the philosophic discussions he later recounts having with the older mentor in Cincinnati while still a callow youth, before he signed on as a steamboat pilot apprentice.  I recall finding out, while doing research on a project, that Sam had read Oliver Goldsmith’s “Citizen of the World” during his Mississippi River days, a book that would be the model for his “Goldsmith’s Friend Abroad Again” letters in the 1870s.  IMHO, nature may have predisposed him, but nurture (environmental variables) made the difference, and Sam, without knowing it, was a behaviorist of the first order, long before J.B. Watson’s “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It (1913).”  His writings, particularly pieces like “The Turning Point of My Life” or “Corn-Pone Opinions,” can be read as the literary equivalent of textbook behaviorist principles.

Again, the price is right.
Martin 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Hal Bush
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2019 9:53 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Question; learning to be MT (vs. "born genius")

Folks, here's a question:


What are the best accounts of MT learning literacy skills and how to be a writer?  This might include childhood accounts, but in this case, more likely I think, adolescent to early adult accounts of long hours, perseverence, intense focus, printer's devil tasks, newspaper deadlines & proofing/copy writing & editing, and so on.


Put another way; if one were to argue AGAINST the "born genius" version of MT ("nature"), and suggest otherwise that his skills emerged over time through blood sweat and tears ("nurture") -- which accounts and biographical depictions out there might be used as support?


Thanks for any leads, --Hal B.





Dr. Hal Bush

Dept. of English

Saint Louis University

[log in to unmask]

314-977-3616

http://halbush.com

author website:  halbush.com

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