Begin with Rasmussen's MARK TWAIN A-Z. That is the most accurate chronology.
If you are going to use maps and try to pinpoint locations with any
accuracy, you are in for hours of fun. Exact addresses for some locations
are unknown or will require chasing down old city directories, which will
contain conflicting information. Not only street names, but entire city
street-numbering systems have changed for some places since Twain's day; in
one instance in my own research I was unsure of which corner a building had
stood, so I traveled to the intersection, held up an old photo taken of the
building in question before it was torn down, and figured out the exact
placement of that building by aligning the photo with a distinctive
telephone pole that appeared in the photo and was miraculously still
standing. BTW, I did this to verify the location of a place where Twain
falsely claimed he had stayed, which is something else to watch for. Some
maps you'd think would exist online can only be found in obscure and
unexpected sources. Trust but verify when relying on local historians; I've
twice been misinformed by well-meaning local experts. Much more has been
lost than saved, as most Twainians already know, but the things that do
survive are not always what they seem; the structure on display as his
birthplace is very likely not his birthplace. The offices of the Territorial
Enterprise were destroyed by fire in the 1870s and the site that tourists
see today is not even at the original location where Twain worked in the
1860s. Even the Brick Church in NYC where services were held for Twain in
1910 was torn down in the 1930s and the "new" church is 40 blocks away,
uptown. John M. Clemens's law office still stands in Hannibal, but not on
its original site. Some of the photos on old postcards or in older books
about Mark Twain are not to be trusted. As for the Mississippi River, there
are old sectional maps (one I'm familiar with is ten feet long) that record
the channels as they existed in Twain's day, but you'll have to overlay them
on current maps (and don't forget that the Mississippi River once extended
hundreds of miles into the Gulf of Mexico). When you get to Australia,
India, South Africa, France, Germany, England, and Scotland, take every
complication I've already mentioned and multiply by five, not to mention the
language barrier in Scotland.
Kevin
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-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Holmes
Sent: Tuesday, December 27, 2016 1:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Can anybody provide a chronological list of where Sam was at
all times?
That's on my to-do list for interactive overlays on my maps. Â I've
still got far too many other points to map, though; most of Following
the Equator and A Tramp Abroad. Â I haven't made up my mind about Life
on the Mississippi as the river Twain steamed on is not the same river
today. Â Plotting his channels is theoretically possible but would
entail a great deal of work.
On Tue, 2016-12-27 at 05:59 +0000, Clay Shannon wrote:
> What would be REALLY cool is to have access to "period"/historical
> maps tha=
> t corresponded to the time Twain was in each location (1840s for
> Hannibal, =
> 1860s for Nevada and California, etc).=C2=A0- B. Clay Shannon
>
> Â Â Â Â Â Â From: Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
> Â To: [log in to unmask]
> Â Sent: Monday, December 26, 2016 12:32 PM
> Â Subject: Re: Can anybody provide a chronological list of where Sam
> was at =
> all times?
> Â =20
> I recommend R. Kent Rasmussen's MARK TWAIN A TO Z or its updated
> edition of
> CRITICAL COMPANION TO MARK TWAIN.=C2=A0 Both references have
> extensive
> chronological charts of where Mark Twain was when.
>
> Barb
>
>
> Â =20
--
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of
in your philosophy.
http://bscottholmes.com
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