In his eulogy to Adam standing at the "tomb of Adam" in *Innocents
Abroad,* Chapter
XXVI, Mark Twain writes,

"How touching it was, here in a land of strangers, far away from home, and
friends, and all who cared for me, thus to discover the grave of a blood
relation.... Noble old man--he did not live to see me--he did not live to
see his child.  And I--I--alas, I did not live to see *him*.  Weighed down
by sorrow and disappointment, he died before I was born--six thousand brief
summers before I was born.  But let us try to bear it with fortitude.  Let
us trust that he is better off where he is.  Let us take comfort that his
loss is our eternal gain."

He formed a deep attachment to Adam, as other writings outside the Adamic
ones, such as his proposal--soliciting funds--to build a monument to the
ancestor, testify.

On Thu, Jun 30, 2016 at 1:28 PM, Steve Hoffman <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> resending to eliminate silly duplication in my
> first sentence!
> -Steve Hoffman
>
>
> > Charles Dickens' Life and Adventures of Martin
> > Chuzzlewhit opens with a humorous paragraph
> > which drily satirizes our obsessions with family
> > lineages .... noting that the Chuzzlewhits
> > deserve great respects for, after all, they
> > trace their lineage to Adam and Eve.
> >
> > I am nearly 100% sure I once read Twain making a
> > similar remark .... it was in the context of
> > giving some truthful information about his
> > parents ancestors, the Clemens and/or the
> > Lamptons, and he threw in a boost along these
> > lines (e.g that his great-great-grandfather was
> > a direct descendant of Adam, or something along
> > those lines).
> >
> > So now it's bugging me that I can't recall the
> > reference, and when I attempt to  do
> > quick-and-dirty Google search, I just get lines
> > from Twain's Diary of Adam and Eve.
> >
> > If any Forum members recall the passage, let me
> > know.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Steve Hoffman, Takoma Park MD
> >
> > p.s. For those who are curious, here's Dickens'
> > paragraph (prolix but still delightful -- I
> > think our man Twain would've have stopped after
> > the first sentence.
> >
> >                     As no lady or gentleman,
> >                     with any claims to polite
> >                     breeding, can possibly
> >                     sympathize with the
> >                     Chuzzlewit Family without
> >                     being firstassured of the
> >                     extreme antiquity of the
> >                     race, it is a great
> >                     satisfaction to know that it
> >                     undoubtedly descended in a
> >                     direct line from Adam and
> >                     Eve; and was, in the very
> >                     earliest times, closely
> >                     connected with the
> >                     agricultural interest. If it
> >                     should ever be urged by
> >                     grudging and malicious
> >                     persons, that a Chuzzlewit,
> >                     in any period of the family
> >                     history, displayed an
> >                     overweening amount of family
> >                     pride, surely the weakness
> >                     will be considered not only
> >                     pardonable but laudable,
> >                     when the immense superiority
> >                     of the house to the rest of
> >                     mankind, in respect of this
> >                     its ancient origin, is taken
> >                     into account.
> >
> >
>



-- 
John H. Davis, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Department of Language and Literature
Chowan University
Murfreesboro, North Carolina 27855