Shelly limits Clemens' fire at 200 acres, a number far short of Twain's description. Two hundred acres is just under a third of a square mile. Over two thousand would be closer (640 acres to the square mile) However, to say it burned down the forest is gross overstatement. There is every indication, even in Clemens' 1961 post fire letter, that it was a brush fire in the forest. He would not have returned a few days after the fire to post fresh claim notices for burned trees, nor would the Timber Barons of the 1870s have bothered with dead trees.Next, as a Boy Scout in the New Jersey Pine Barrens in the 1950s, we ate a small wild berry we called Huckleberries, as well as ingesting many tiny Teaberries; does anyone else remember Teaberry Chewing Gum? As I remember the lore of the Barrens, in a novel by Steven Meder, who was the first author I ever met, local youth were encouraged to locate larger huckleberry plants for one farmer, who from them developed the blueberry industry of that state. I believe New Jersey "huckleberries" are the same fruit family, genus Vaccinium, but a different section, V. corybosum, than the Idaho Huckleberry, V. myrtillum.Bob Stewart, Carson City
On Monday, May 7, 2018 2:14 PM, Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Here is Shelley=E2=80=99s posting without the garbling.
Kevin
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From: Shelley Fisher Fishkin=20
Sent: Monday, May 07, 2018 10:17 AM
To: Mark Twain Forum=20
Subject: Re: BOOK REVIEW: _Huckleberry Cookbook_ by Alex & Stephanie =
Hester
Reading Kevin's intriguing parallels between Twain and Thoreau reminded =
me of another: in addition to having "lit out for the territory in their =
literary imaginations=E2=80=9D (as Kevin put it) both men lit up =
something else: hundreds of acres of forest in areas they would later =
make famous in their writing. Both men were careless about sparks from =
campfires they had built to cook some food. Twain inadvertently burned =
down 200 acres of forest around Lake Tahoe eight years before he would =
celebrate that scenery in Innocents Abroad; Thoreau managed to =
inadvertently burn down 300 acres of Concord Woods the year before he =
built his cabin alongside the nearby pond he would immortalize in =
Walden.=20
Firefighters at Lake Tahoe have a long memory, as I=E2=80=99ve noted =
elsewhere:
http://blog.loa.org/2012/07/shelley-fisher-fishkin-on-enduring.html
Shelley
=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Shelley Fisher Fishkin=20
Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities=20
Professor of English=20
Director of American Studies
Co-Director, Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project
Stanford University
[log in to unmask]
On May 7, 2018, at 6:55 AM, Kevin Mac Donnell =
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Thanks Larry. That Thoreau quote reminds me of what I wrote in an =
essay on Thoreau (posted in full at the Thoreau Institute website). The =
connections between Twain and Thoreau don't begin and end with =
huckleberries. I wrote:
These two names are not often linked but they are literary kinsman =
just the same. Both had a sly sense of humor, both lost brothers dear to =
them in tragic accidents, both rebelled against slavery, both rejected =
war, and both wrote books that transport the reader down life-changing =
rivers. They also share the distinction of writing books that resonate =
so deeply that many readers return throughout their lives to reread them =
. . . . Mark Twain may have traveled further afield albeit less =
extensively than Thoreau, quarreled more openly with God, lived larger =
and ambled across a wider stage, but both lit out for the territory in =
their literary imaginations and envisioned an America that would someday =
realize its promise.
Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
9307 Glenlake Drive
Austin TX 78730
512-345-4139
Member: ABAA, ILAB
*************************
You may browse our books at:
www.macdonnellrarebooks.com
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