They unfortunately don't give sources for this remark, but Wilson and
Ferris in their
Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989) say that "Mark Twain objected
to the South's pretensions.
Remembering the grand, absurd village names of his youth, he chose St.
Petersburg as the name for his
fictional river town, trying to catch and satirize those grandiose
dreams of splendor." Also, the Russian
St. Petersburg was most likely prominent in newspapers in 1968,
although 6 years prior to Tom Sawyer,
with the "St. Petersburg Declaration," when numerous countries signed
rules of war prohibiting excessive
injury to combatants. The U.S. did not. Surely that made an
impression with MT. But wouldn't Sam the
river pilot in 1857 know about the Salt River St. Petersburg (from maps
or whatever), even if it had "died"
out by 1840???
Ron O.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2006 09:33:19 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mark Coburn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: St. Petersburg
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Never, never forget that we're dealing with a man who loved punning and
playing with words: In some documents he calls his family "Carpenter" and
then Tom becomes "Sawyer" (while his girlfriend is "Thatcher"). In
Huckleberry Finn the two feuding families no longer recall what started the
violence, but their names tell us it was probably the old story of farmers
(Grangerfords) vs. sheepmen (Shepherdsons).
Now, if you recall, Clemens in his more nostalgic and upbeat moments
referred to both Hannibal (I'm pretty sure) and his uncle's farm as "a
heavenly place for a boy." Doesn't it seem fairly likely that a heavenly
place might well become the Burg of St. Peter?
Mark
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 7 Aug 2006 19:02:07 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Twain's accent
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Dear Group:
I wonder how Twain actually sounded. How much has the Hannibal accent
changed from Twain's time, and is Twain's accent considered to be a true
Hannibal accent? I have not had the opportunity to speak with anyone
from Hannibal so really don't know how someone from that area sounds.
Thank Y'all
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 15:52:44 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Ballard, Terry Prof." <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Expansion of Twain journal writing citation page
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Back in the spring, I created a quick bibliography of citations to
Twain's 19th century journal writing, and posted it as a web page at:
http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu/libraries/tballard/twainjournals.html
I've noticed that this seems to fill some sort of need, because it's
been viewed regularly since then, so I've undertaken an upgrade. Now,
I've added dozens of links when the article cited is available free on
the web through one of the Making of America databases. About a third of
the MOA articles had not been on my original list, so the total list is
growing nicely. Enjoy!
Terry Ballard
Quinnipiac University
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 16:05:44 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Query about Collaboration
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The following is an email I sent to Dr. Stephen Railton, U of Va. seeking a
credentialed historian for future publication of my project, a day-by-day
chronology of Sam Clemens' life. If you are interested, you may email me:
[log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
thank you,
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 17:41:47 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Huck's Mom and Dad
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Greetings Twainiackians;
I am surly this day, facing the inevitable: not so much the first week of
class, which I tend to like a lot. But those dreaded days leading up to it,
with syllabus writing, malfunctioning xerox machines, screwed-up book orders
("But I ordered the Norton edition, and need it for the essays!?"), and vans
and pick-ups clogging the lanes around campus. Parents, slathered with
sweat, carrying dorm fridges and heavy boxes up long flights of stairs (115
heat index here in St. Louis).
Read page 1 of DeLillo's WHITE NOISE. . . .
Here is my query:
What do we know about Huck Finn's father and mother, beyond the obvious??
Any speculations? Or even names (besides Pap, for instance)??
I could look it up in the various places that provide all of this sort of
arcane info, of course, but none of those texts are readily available.
Just wonderin' . . . . .
Harold K. Bush
Saint Louis University
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 15:32:55 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Horace J. Digby" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fw: Query about Collaboration
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David,
I knew I had seen the dates differently some where.
here is a site to a revised list of dates:
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/wrldschd.html
It seems that Twain's schedule was:
Aug. 7 Spokane, Wash.
Aug. 9 Portland, Ore.
Aug. 10 Olympia, Wash.
Aug. 12 Tacoma, Wash.
Aug. 13 Seattle, Wash.
Aug. 14 New Whatcom, Wash.
Aug. 15 Vancouver, B.C.
Do I have it right now?
Horace J. Digby
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 15:29:27 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Horace J. Digby" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Query about Collaboration
Comments: To: [log in to unmask]
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David,
This is indeed fortuitous.
I was wondering, on Twain's "Around The World Tour," it seems he would
have been heading from Tacoma, Washington to Portland, Oregon on August
on August 11, or 12, 1995, and heading back from Portland, Oregon to
Seattle, Washington on August 12th or 13th.
I think he was traveling by rail. I live on that rail route, in Kelso,
Washington. Can you help me. I've been trying to determine which
day(s) or nights he would have passed through Kelso, and where he stayed
in Portland, Spokane, Olympia, Tacoma, and Seattle. My assumption is
that he got his sleep on the train. Is that correct.
What can you tell me of his precise itinerary and from August 5, 1895 to
August 16, 1895?
I have bold tentative plans to take the same train trip as Twain one or
more of these days.
Horace J. Digby
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 19:04:40 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Huck's Mom and Dad
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In a message dated 8/8/2006 3:43:08 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Here is my query:
What do we know about Huck Finn's father and mother, beyond the obvious??
Any speculations? Or even names (besides Pap, for instance)??
I could look it up in the various places that provide all of this sort of
arcane info, of course, but none of those texts are readily available.
Woodson Blankenship - head of the family, from S. Carolina. Worked at the
old sawmill, drank heavily. 1845 tax delinquent rolls for 29c. Oldest son,
Benson, called Bence, did odd jobs but mostly teased Sam Clemens and mates.
Tom
Blankenship, the younger brother, was the model for Huck Finn. The
Blankenship
girls were rumored to be into prostitution. (Wecter) Mark Twain A toZ,
Rasmussen gives the wife's name as Mahala Blankenship, eight children, all
born in
Missouri.
Hope this helps.
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 22:35:30 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: [log in to unmask]
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Hi all,
Just a coincidence, but I am currently traveling on the I-5 near Kelso,
Portland, having been to Tacoma, Seattle, and Portland. It is nice to know
that
Twain passed through these parts...
Dr. Carla McGill
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 8 Aug 2006 22:19:05 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Huck's Mom and Dad
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Thanks, David, that is interesting.
But I am also interested in what we can determine from the text itself.
Are there any clues in the novel, or elsewhere, that indicate further
details or possibilities about the character Pap Finn and the mother of
Huck?
Harold K. Bush
Saint Louis University
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 02:47:45 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Hucks's mom and dad
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Dear Professors:
How dare I, a mere graduate in English Lit with only a BA, but I'll answer
the question anyway. I assumed from Huck Finn hat his mom was deceased, or
else why would he be living with the Widow?
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 00:10:03 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Huck's Mom and Dad
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In a message dated 8/8/2006 8:20:34 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Thanks, David, that is interesting.
But I am also interested in what we can determine from the text itself.
Are there any clues in the novel, or elsewhere, that indicate further
details or possibilities about the character Pap Finn and the mother of
Huck?
Pap Finn is in Tom Sawyer as well as Huckleberry Finn. Pap is modeled after
Jimmy Finn, a notable Hannibal drunk but without the mean qualities. Huck
is
orphaned by a deceased mother and an absentee father, Pap, who shows up out
of the blue--we don't know where he's been. Shelly Fisher Fishkin's
remarkable
work, Was Huck Black? points out: The only "real" family that each boy
[Huck
Finn compared to the real Jimmy Finn] has is "Pa" or "Pap" and in both
cases
teh father has a history of alcohol problems that both children describe
with unembarrassed frankness. In both cases (despite Jimmy's assertion that
Pa's
drinking days are over), the problem is ongoing.
So, no mother; character of the father--drunk, mean and patterned after
Hannibal's Jimmy Finn who slept with the hogs at the town tannery.
If I find more I'll email.
David
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 08:29:34 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Sharon McCoy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Huck's Mom and Dad
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Camy, don't be silly. I know that many folks on this forum are professors,
but by no means all of them, and by no means do we have any monopoly on
insight or information. Twain himself had little formal schooling--and look
how much we all still learn from him. A good heart and an inquiring mind,
that's what is needed in life.
I know of only one passage where Huck's mom is explicitly mentioned. In
Chapter 5, when Huck finds pap in his room, pap taunts him about reading,
"Your mother couldn't read, and she couldn't write, nuther, before she died.
None of the family couldn't, before they died."
And she's apparently been dead for quite awhile, because in all of his
despair or terror, Huck never mentions her at all. Nor do the boys,
earlier, when Huck's "family" is brought up by the young would-be robbers.
Ben Rogers says, "Here's Huck Fin, he hain't got no family--what you going
to do 'bout him?" Tom Sawyer answers, "Well, hain't he got a father?" (Ch.
2). Nothing is said about his mother.
As far as I recall, Huck's mother is never mentioned again in any of the
Huck/Tom/Jim narratives, not even when women like Polly, Sally or the widow
Douglas try to mother him or when he falls hard for Mary Jane Wilks. If
Huck remembered his mother at all, you'd think that there would be some
comparison or mention.
As for Pap, he clearly consorts with gamblers and drunks, and is a vagabond
and habitual petty thief (never leave a chicken roostin' comfortable--you
never knew when company might want to share it, though pap never shares,
according to Huck). Fish-belly white, superstitious, with "uncommon long,"
lank black hair, and you could probably smell him coming a block away,
between the booze and the hogs. Gone for over a year, with no one to care,
and from a class that guaranteed no white people much cared about his
abandoned son, either, until he helped save one of the "quality."
I was listening to the fine recording by Norman Dietz on a recent trip.
That's all that remains fresh in my mind. Hope this helps at all, Hal.
Best,
Sharon McCoy
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 06:17:15 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mark Coburn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Huck's Mom and Dad
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Hal,
I would think TOM SAWYER might be the better book for seeking information on
Hucks origins, since it's the one in which Twain invented him.
In Chapter 25, Huck recalls that "pap and my mother . . . used to fight all
the time." That's the only reference I can recall, though there may be
more.
And there's always the problem that Twain could be so vague and breezy about
some matters--exactly how is Tom related to Sid, for instance? Famously,
when writing HUCKLEBERRY FINN he was too lazy to go look up Tom's
girlfriend's name. In her one mention in Huck's book she is "Bessie."
Much more important, Twain's whole conception of Huck changed as he wrote.
Somewhere in TOM SAWYER the narrator mentions Huck's slow mind, and in
general the boy is far less mentally agile than Tom in the earlier book.
Only in the last chapter, when Huck explains why he has fled the Widow's
house, does he really sound like the Huck of HUCKLEBERRY FINN.
Mark
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 13:47:36 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Niek Langeweg (werk)" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Huck's Mom and Dad
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Wasn't Huck's father seen dead (by Jim) in a boat, that looked like a
floating brothel?
That gives some ground for speculations.
As to his mother: Huck's father claimed she couldn't write and read, like
all the other members of Huck's family. That is another clue, I reckon.
Niek
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 09:33:56 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Horace J. Digby" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: 111 Years Ago Today
Comments: To: Joe Alvarez <[log in to unmask]>, [log in to unmask]
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It turns out that 111 years ago, today (August 9, 1895), none other than
Mark Twain was traveling by Northern Pacific Railroad from Tacoma,
Washington to Portland, Oregon. Sometime in the afternoon, his
conveyance would have passed within sight and sound of the very spot
where I write these words, in Kelso (Lexington), Washington.
Twain will arrive in Portland, 111 years ago, at 8:22 p.m. tonight,
going directly to the Marquam Grand Opera House (on the site of what is
now the Pioneer Courthouse Square) where he will find waiting, a
standing-room-only audience waiting, who he will entertain for one and
one half hours. After his lecture, Twain took late supper with his old
friend Colonel Wood, late of the United States Army, and some two dozen
leading citizens, at the Portland Club.
Of the next morning, Twain's manager, Major J. B. Pond, will write, "It
was not easy to tear ourselves away from Portland so early. The
Oregonian contains one of the best notices that 'Mark' has had. He is
pleased with it, and is very jolly to-day."
On the morning of August 10th, 111 years ago, they will boarded the
11:00 Northern Pacific Railroad train for Olympia. But just before
leaving Portland, Twain will visit with a young, but unidentified,
reporter for The Oregonian, who will write what Twain later called, "the
most accurate and best" interview ever written of him.
Twain will tell that young reporter, 111 years ago tomorrow,
"Well, I haven't had an opportunity to see much of Portland, because,
through the diabolical machinations of Major Pond, over there, I am
compelled to leave it after but a glimpse. I may never see Portland
again, but I liked that glimpse."
That entire interview as it appeared in The Oregonian, exists online at:
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/mttalks.html.
These events are part Mark Twain's celebrated Tour Around The World, the
North American leg of which is documented by Twain's tour manager, Major
J. B. Pond, in a journal he kept. Pond's journal available is online
at" http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/pondecc.html.
The review which appeared in The Oregonian, also unattributed, appears
on line at: http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/wrldtr4.html.
Twain lectured in Olympia on the 10th of August, Tacoma on the 12th, and
Seattle on the 13th. In Seattle, The Seattle Post-Intelligencer gave
Twain a wonderful review.
"Mark Twain Again Proves His Greatness as a Humorist . . . Last night
at the Seattle theater a crowded audience heard him for an hour and a
half with unwearying enjoyment as he gave one of those strange medleys
of humor and philosophy which have so much the sound of a great literary
improvisation."
The other Seattle paper, who's name I won't at the moment recall, missed
the mark, choosing to debate that Twain was merely funny and a top story
teller, but "that his wit is brilliant or his humor suggestive cannot be
truly claimed."
Both reviews are both posted at:
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/wrldtr7.html. The reader is
advised to quickly scroll down through the review provided by the more
inferior paper, and find the truth of the thing, as was is accurately
reported in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer review.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 12:27:11 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Sharon McCoy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Huck's Mom and Dad
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Thanks, Mark--I totally missed that one. His description of her isn't
flattering either, in the context. Tom has said he's going to get married
and Huck tells him he "ain't in his right mind" and that it is the
"foolishest thing" he could do, because his "pap and mother . . . used to
fight all the time."
And lest we want to blame it all on pap--Huck says about girls, "I reckon
they're all alike. They'll all comb a body. Now you better think 'bout
this a while. I tell you you better." (Ch. 25)
Of course, though, Huck then says he's worried about how lonesome he'd be if
Tom married.
Another book I need to re-read, again.
Best,
Sharon
[log in to unmask]
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 13:10:09 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Hucks's mom and dad
MIME-Version: 1.0
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In a message dated 8/9/2006 4:09:30 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Dear Professors:
How dare I, a mere graduate in English Lit with only a BA, but I'll answer
the question anyway. I assumed from Huck Finn hat his mom was deceased, or
else why would he be living with the Widow?
Camy
The next time you think to apologize for your degree, think about Sam
Clemens, who went to 4 schools in his boyhood days, but dropped out in
about 1850
at age 14. But what an education the man got! In his old age, an honorary
degree from Oxford. So, never ever apologize for your level of formal
education.
In some ways everyone is ignorant.
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 14:58:40 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Bob Huddleston <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Expansion of Twain journal writing citation page
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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The June 1880 Atlantic had a short article by Twain on listening in on one
side of a telephone conversation. And thereby showing how much he would have
enjoyed writing about folk using cell phones in public!
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/1880jun/phoneconversation.htm
Take care,
Bob Huddleston
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2006 18:49:51 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Other authors' internet lists?
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Folks;
Sorry to ask another, but:
I have been meaning to find out what other lists like this one are our
members involved with. For some reason, I have never gotten onto other
authors' lists, although I do watch the HAMSTDY list.
In particular, I would love to have access to lists for Walt Whitman and
Harriet Beecher Stowe, if such lists exist.
Thanks again,
Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Saint Louis University
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 08:19:52 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Janice McIntire-Strasburg <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Other authors' internet lists?
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Hey, Hal,
Could probably tell you this when I see you, but you can go to Google and
type in "listserv lists" and get a list of any/all lists about everything.
They are subdivided by classifications like "literature". I'm pretty sure
there's a Whitman list, and I'd be surprised if there wasn't a Stowe one as
well.
Best,
Jan McStras
Janice McIntire-Strasburg, Ph.D.
Saint Louis University
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 17:23:10 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Ballard, Terry Prof." <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Expansion of Twain journal writing citation page
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Bob,
I would have added that to the list, but when I clicked the link, I
was asked for a password. Some online journals, like the New York Times,
make you register, and you get their content for free after that. This
one seemed to want money.
Since all of these titles are in the safe public domain, I've started
to toy with the notion of choosing some of the more obscure articles and
digitizing them myself. Since we already have started an online library
of Connecticut history book titles, it falls easily within our existing
frame of work. The hardest part would be getting copies of the original
journals, but that could be done by asking the right sources.
This would probably take years to do, but the end result would be
worth having. I've got a pretty good idea of how Twain would have
treated boorish cell phone abusers.
Terry Ballard
Quinnipiac University
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 06:22:34 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Carolyn Leutzinger Richey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Camy,
I'm originally from St. Louis and have many relatives in "out-state"
Missour-ah and Southern Illinois. Whenever I read Huck or Tom speaking in
either of their books, I can hear the Mississippi valley. I hear my family
and all the other people from the small towns around there. Twain said (and
I'm paraphrasing) that a true Missourian said "Missour-ah" --not Missour-ee.
I'm from St. Louis, so I guess I would fall in the untrue Missourian
category. But, back to the point, I think Twain's accent was more country
than Southern and probably sounded much like Tom and Huck. When you look at
the original manuscripts, you can see the painstaking care he took in making
sure each word he wrote was authentic in dialect.
Just as an aside, whenever I teach Tom or Huck, I always give my students
instructions on Missouri pronunciation. I specifically tell them that Huck
and Jim were not heading for the city in Egypt, they were heading for
"Kay-ro."
Carolyn Leutzinger Richey
(a transplanted Missourian, now in San Diego)
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 07:37:11 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: tdempsey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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Unfortunately, Hannibal, has undergone the same homogenization of accents as
the rest of the nation. There are many transplants here. Quite a few are
refugees from the coasts, actually. But in the country in Marion, Ralls, and
Pike County among older folks who predate television, there are those who
possess a pronounced southern accent not unlike rural Kentucky and
Tennessee. Of course, I cannot attest to what changes have occurred in this
accent over time since Sam left.
It has been years since I took a linguistics course, and I don't have
the vocabulary to describe the nature of the sounds, but I will try. Words
sound as though they are pronounced slowly. I'm not sure they really are,
but they sound that way. As a transplanted minister friend of mine
observed, people say Jesus as if it has six syllables. The vowels are drawn
out very long and the consonants are soft. Ralls County sounds like Rawlz
Cowndee (the 'd' there is not quite right. It is somewhere between a t and
a d.) Roof is pronounced with an 'uh' not an 'oo' as in voodoo. The second
person plural is "you-all" as God intended when he gave us the gift of
speech. One peculiarity that Vicki and I have noted is pronouncing elm as
'ell-em'. Creeks are frequently branches.
Many people, particularly those who live on the east coast, west coast
or are burdened with a graduate degree, associate the slow talk with slow
intellect which led to a Missouri Story about the WPA folklorist who came to
town. He went up to an old farmer who was whittling on a bench in front of
the courthouse. The folklorist (from Harvard, of course) pointed to a
nearby tree and asked, "Say, old timer, what do people around here call that
tree."
The old man glanced up at the tree and went back to whittling. He
thought for a moment, then he replied, "I don't rightly recall the popular
name, but I'm pretty sure the scientific name is Quercus Velutina."
Terrell
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:38:31 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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You also have to take into consideration that Clemens's speech was likely
somewhat distinctive, aside from regional linguistic qualities, at least to
the extent that his mother referred to it as "Sammy's slow talk."
Martin Zehr
Kansas City, Missouri
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 08:37:02 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: "J.Dean" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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Since I have noticed comments about Twain's "slow" way of speaking, I
have always assumed that he would have had more of a Southern accent
than most people in the Hannibal, Mo. area would have had. His
parents, after all, were from Southern states before they moved and
would have brought their speech patterns with them. Little Sammy would
have developed his speech at home, influenced by their way of speaking,
no doubt.
In his public speaking, I believe he would emphasize his "drawl" for
comic effect. To my ear, the recording of Wm. Gillette's imitation of
his friend and neighbor Mark Twain's speech bears this out.
Jerry Dean
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 10:21:12 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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I grew up in Indianapolis and then spent many years living in southern
Indiana, which also has a very strong "southern-country" accent. The
so-called "Indianapolis" accent of natives like Jane Pauley and David
Letterman is sometimes considered close to the pure, "national" accent used
by newscasters on national programs. So there is a very large difference
within the state itself, mostly reflecting the regional differences.
What I want to say is this: whatever we might conceive to be a "southern"
accent goes pretty far north. In both Indiana and Illinois, there are
distinctly southern and northern sections. Native Hoosiers, for instance,
are all quite cognizant of the differences between the sound of language in
the "region" (next to Chicago, featuring cities like Gary and Hammond), in
Indy, and in the southern hill country. 3 distinct sounds.
They tried to pick up some of that southern accent in the film "Hoosiers,"
which is set in southern Indiana, and got some of it right.
Main point: many northern, pro-Union states also feature "southern"
accents, especially in their southern halves.
Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Saint Louis University
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 11:17:17 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
From contemporary comments by those who heard him, I think the slowness of
his speech was what set it apart from others with a southern or Missouri
accent.
This month's Harper's (September) has some excerpts (p. 16) from the
forthcoming book on MT's Interviews (U-Alabama Press), gathered under the
heading "Mark's Twang" and the slowness is the feature that dominates there
as well.
No insult intended, but I've met some southerners (I am one) and some
Missourians who spoke so slowly I wanted to push a button in between their
words, to start them up again. I have met some Texans who spoke so fast that
I likewise wanted to push a button to make them stop.
The thing I find most striking is that those who describe his speech in
private conversation give very similar accounts to those who heard it on the
lecture platform. Perhaps the dramatic pauses were longer on the platform
(and maybe not), but from what I've read, I gather that Twain sounded pretty
much the same in private and in public.
One hint to the pace of his speech might be found in his personal copy of
SKETCHES (1875) that he marked for public readings. He heavily edited the
piece "How I Edited an Agricultural Paper" adding about as much as he
deleted (generally increasing the name-calling and exaggerating the
exaggerations even further) and then marked the delivery time at the top of
the first page-- "20 mins."
So, fellow Twainians, you can all stand in front of mirrors with
stop-watches and read that piece aloud until you get it to exactly 20
minutes and you'll have an idea of just how slow (or fast) he spoke. For the
twang and the rest of it you're on your own.
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:29:55 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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P.S.- Correction, I should have said, "Sammy's long talk." MZ, Kansas
City Mo
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:22:25 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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"Sammy's long speech," as his mother Jane Lampton Clemens called it, was
acquired from her. Ron Powers in Dangerous Waters: "Jane Lampton was in
many
ways the feminine version of the son who would in turn render her immortal
as
Aunt Polly...She was small and red-haired, as Sam would be, with small feet
and
hands; yet she was a passionate dancer, and her son would be a dancer too.
She spoke in the soft, almost mannered drawl that Sam would inherit and use
to
mesmerize his close-up listeners and his lecture-hall audiences--the drawl
that could be mistaken for a drunken slur, and which he once lampooned as
'my
drawling infirmity of speech.'" p 32
It may have been Sam's slow, measured speech that contributed to Horace
Bixby's agreement to train him as a cub Pilot in April of 1857. I've read
somewhere Bixby's reaction to meeting Sam and his drawl was distinctive.
From my readings, I would not call Sam's speech a "Southern accent," as
much
as an idiosyncrasy he aped from his mother. It was simply one of the
things
he learned at his mother's knee.
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 14:28:04 -0400
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
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From: Peter Salwen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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All this slow-talk talk suddenly brought to mind one of my all-time favorite
Bob & Ray creations, "Slow Talker," from their 1970 Broadway show "Bob and
Ray--The Two and Only." (That's Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, for the
culturally deprived among you.)
In it, Bob plays one Harlow P. Whitcomb, the President and Recording
Secretary of the S.T.O.A., the Slow Talkers of America. Ray attempts to
conduct an interview, and the result is not only hilarious but also
amazingly aggravating, and it occurs to me now that it may perhaps, in an
oblique way, suggest something of what Twain's live audiences may have
experienced.
By the way, the collected interviews is a BRILLIANT idea, and I can't wait
to lay hands on a copy.
Peter Salwen
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 11 Aug 2006 21:59:14 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: "B.A. van der Wel" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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Greetings All:
As a Southerner whose maternal grandmother was born in St. Louis,
I've always had quite a bit of fun imagining exactly what Twain might
have sounded like. Certainly I've always enjoyed Mr. Holbrook's
performances and cadences of the "Slow-Sam-speak" he employs.
However, one lovely thing that often escapes those looking closely
and linguistically for a definitive Mark Twain accent is the basic
and tranquil utility of just speaking slowly. It simply gives one
more time to think of what to say (especially in reply to someone
else) and more time to come up with a zinger. I think this natural
way of speaking tor Clemens, learned at his mother's knee or
elsewhere, served Mark Twain very well in life. Press accounts
certainly seem to support such an observation on my part, as he was
rarely recorded as having little to say that was not highly
entertaining, witty or possessed of other memorable qualities.
Dramatic pauses certainly serve comedy timing and are natural for a
slower Southern speech pattern. But I hope no one will overlook the
vast ground an agile mind, like Clemens, could cover in such a
seemingly short pause and with what effect the treasures gathered
from all that ground often displayed.
Cordially,
B. Adrian van der Wel, MFA-at-Large
San Francisco, California
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 09:16:32 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Teaching twainian
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Dear Group:
I find the discussion about Twain's accent fascinating to say the least.
If I were going to play Twain, (now there's a nightmare for you), and I
aproached you for lessons, how would you teach me to sound like Twain?
Thank you.
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 09:49:30 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Jerry Vorpahl <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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That Twain practiced his speech patterns is indisputable. That he mastered
the dramatic pause, he says so himself. I teach media and presentation
techniques to business execs and urge them to use the Twainian pause to
command attention. As he said in a letter to Livy before they were married,
"No man knows better than I, the enormous value of the whole-hearted welcome
achieved without a spoken word - and no man will dare more than I to get it.
An audience captured in that way belongs to the speaker, body and soul, for
the rest of the evening." (I do not have the citation handy.) He would walk
from the dark at the back of the stage to the front and simply look at his
audience for as long as two minutes, while lighting his cigar or toying with
note cards in his pocket. Holbrook does this and to great affect.
JERRY VORPAHL
Sacramento,
The town MT called, "A City of Saloons."
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 21:09:55 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: "Andrews, Gregory A" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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I have been following this discussion about Twain's accent with great =
interest and, I confess, with certain amusement. I was born (1950) and =
raised in the Ilasco-Hannibal area about 2 miles south of the cave =
hollow in Ralls County. My family still lives there, but I moved away a =
long time ago and go back there only to visit family, do research, or =
for speaking and/or music engagements. My family's roots go back to the =
period after the Civil War. I've lived in south central Texas for the =
last 18 years.
I agree with Terrell Dempsey about accents in the area and would like to =
add a few other observations based on my experience. As he points out, =
the rural accent in the Salt River counties is very similar to that =
heard in Tennessee and Kentucky, where my mother's family is from. Like =
some people I've known in rural Kentucyy, my mother still pronounces the =
word, sheriff, as "shurf"; fish as "feesh"; push as "poosh" (yet, as =
Terrell points out, roof is "ruhf"); hour as "are"; both tower and tire =
as "tar," etc. A quick funny story--one of my nephews, who was about 10 =
years old at the time, asked me if I ever watched the "Are" Magazine =
show. When I hesitated (a bit confused), he quickly added, "well, THEY =
call it 'Hour' Magazine."
Education and living experiences in a variety of states have obviously =
re-shaped my "accent." I remember that when I was a kid, Missouri was =
"Missourah," but I changed my pronunciation when I discovered that other =
folks didn't pronounce it that way. In fact, I even received a lecture =
from one of my Spanish professors (a Cuban refugee) at Truman State =
University that I wasn't pronouncing the name of my home state the =
correct way.
Nevertheless, I haven't completely discarded the Hannibal area accent. =
One night after performing one of my songs at a honky tonk here in =
Texas, someone approached me with a grin and said, "what's with the word =
'burly.'" Since the lyrics didn't contain the word, "burly," I expressed =
confusion and said I didn't know what he was getting at.Then I learned =
that he was referring to the way I pronounced the word, "barely." My =
wife also still needles me about saying "poosh" and "feesh." A friend of =
mine from Ontario was completely shocked when he learned just how far =
north Hannibal actually is, given how pronounced my "southern" accent =
is, at least to him.
Many area rural residents who have never moved away still retain a lot =
of the speech patterns that go back to Twain's boyhood era. So many of =
them came from KY, TN, and VA long before the Civil War.
Hope "y'all" find these observations at least amusing, if not useful. A =
big hello to Terrell and Vicki, at whose home my wife and I had a great =
dinner and spent a very enjoyable evening a few years ago.
Gregg Andrews
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 10:20:19 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: tdempsey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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Greg Andrews's two books on the area: City of Dust and Insane Sisters (both
University of Missouri Press) are must-reads if you have a mature interest
in Hannibal and environs. I think everyone would harvest insights that
would give depth to their perspective on Twain. Though Greg addresses a
later time, waves were still rippling through the pond from the 1840s.
Greg, I hope you are continuing work on Ralls County and Reconstruction.
I look forward to reading that -- especially anything you come up with on
Freedmen Schools and Missionary efforts here.
Best,
Terrell
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 15:24:45 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Had Livy lived
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After having read three biographies of Twain, I cannot help but believe that
the entire Twain family would have been much better and closer had Livy
lived. For all Clemens' genius, he could not hold the family together. I
especially believe that Jean would have been much better cared for by her
mother and perhaps would not have come to such an untimely death. How do
you feel about this?
Thank you.
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 13 Aug 2006 19:36:49 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Had Livy lived
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One might also make such a judgment with regard to Susy. Or even Langdon.
Large families and untimely deaths were the norm in the 19th century. But
to
the point of your question, I do believe a case can be made for Livy's
beneficial impact as editor in residence on Sam's literary work. The tired
saw about
Livy lessening the vitality of Sam's writing just doesn't wash. But by the
time of Livy's death, Sam Clemens was not the same man--his bitterness came
to
dominate his thinking and his life. Resa Williams has done a good treatment
of Livy & Sam, called "Mark and Livy--The love story of Mark Twain and the
woman who (almost) tamed him."
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:11:03 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Henry Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Where did I read this?
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Where in the Mark Twain canon did I read this? (Flaky and undoubtedly
misremembered details are in parentheses.)
Clemens and some friends have attended a public event (Independence Day
rally?) somewhere west of Boston. They return (to Cambridge?) late and
tired. His host's wife (Mrs. Howells?), having never met Sam before, is
somewhat alarmed at his disheveled appearance (and sealskin coat?).
My reason for wanting to recapture this incident is that I have plans to
give a Mark Twain talk this fall at the Newton (Mass.) Historical Society,
located right by the railroad tracks that have headed west from Boston since
1850 or so. If I could make a plausible suggestion that Sam and riotous
friends once passed right by the lecture site, it might add a spark to the
talk.
Attempts to search the Web and my long Twain bookshelf have failed so far.
Can any of the assembled sharp memories come to my aid?
Thanks,
Henry Feldman
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 13:35:41 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: Re: Where did I read this?
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Henry, I can find nothing of this incident in Howell's remembrances of Sam
in "My Mark Twain." There is a description of his first meeting with Sam in
1869 in the office of James T. Fields, 124 Tremont Street, Boston. In that
meeting Sam wore the sealskin coat made so famous. (p4)
Sam often visited Howells in his homes in Cambridge, Boston and elsewhere,
and the favors were returned. Both men married frail women, had daughters
die
prematurely, and shared literary interests and achievements.
Howells does describe an incident in April, 1875 when Sam arrived at
Howells
to travel on to Concord for the centennial celebration of the Minute Men
battle with the British. They wanted to take the train for Concord at the
Cambridge station but the train was packed. They snuck home and pretended
to have
been to Concord but were found out. (pages 39-40).
Could this have been the event you recalled?
I am still in the 1860s with much of my work, but have done some of the
Buffalo period, so have not come across much yet that might help you. A
cursory
check of incidents involving Elinor Howells and such did not turn up any
other
notable incidents, but if you can obtain Howell's nostalgic work, My Mark
Twain, it may jog your memory.
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:20:00 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mark Coburn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Where did I read this?
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I'm sure someone else will give you a more accurate answer. But at least
this is a start:
You've confused two episodes. Twain and Howells did indeed get all messed
up trying to reach some ceremonial occasion outside Boston--a source of
frustration at the time, but later something they laughed about.
But the episode with the sealskin coat came several years earlier, and the
offended lady was Mrs. Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
I'm nearly sure both stories are in Justin Kaplan's biography. If Kaplan
doesn't include a picture of the sealskin coat, you can find one on p. 115
of the old picture biography MARK TWAIN HIMSELF, by Milton Meltzer.
Mark Coburn
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:11:22 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Vic Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Where did I read this?
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You may be remembering Clemens's first encounter with Lilian Aldrich,
Thomas Bailey Aldrich's wife, in 1871; and Justin Kaplan's account of it in
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, pp. 144-45. See also Mark Twain in Eruption,
292-303; and Lilian Aldrich's Crowding Memories, pp. 127-132.
Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 3, 481-86, gives Clemens's lecture schedules
for the 1868-69 and 1869-70 tours. He lectured in Newtonville (one of the
villages that made up Newton), Mass., on 29 November 1869, at the
Congregational Church, and according to the Newton Journal his talk
"elicited shouts of laughter. Three divines of the town were noticed as
present, apparently in a most enjoyable frame of mind" (414 n. 2). See also
Mark Twain's Letters,.Volume 4, passim, for Clemens's first encounters with
Aldrich and pp, 484-86 (for a description of a memorable lunch including
Aldrich, Clemens, Harte, Keeler, Howells, and James T. Fields. The lecture
calendar for 1871-72, which also includes a number of Massachusetts towns,
is on pp. 557-60.
Vic Fischer
Mark Twain Project
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 16:33:18 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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For many years I've been rewriting a novel about our mutual friend's early
life ('35-"61). I am, in general, troubled by drawls and accents. I suspect
Sam's. I also deplore the clipped, snooty, nasal sonority affected by the
English. I am bent on resolving the matter.
I am still researching the English, but thanks to Clara Clemens, I've
nailed
Sam. In her memoir she wrote that after Susy's death, "Father's passionate
nature expressed itself in thunderous outbursts of bitterness shading into
rugged grief. He walked the floor with quick steps and there was no drawl
in his
speech now." (p.179)
So there you have it. We know where the drawl came from but not where it
went. I respectfully submit that Hal Holbrook's drawl would go to the same
place
were he goosed with a cattle prod. Arrant fakery! Just like the English.
I shall expose them. In my final novel, scheduled to be rewritten in 2168
or
thereabouts, I shall hang them at Oxford. When SLC dons that ridiculous red
dress, someone will yell, "Fire!" and the whole hoity-toity posturing
bunch
will absquatulate the premises swearing in good old-fashioned rapid fire
general American English.
Lee Coyle
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 20:07:04 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Could it fly?
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Dear Group:
I know we briefly touched on this subject before, but I envision an
actor as twain with a rather small audience, maybe even people sitting
around tables, and the performance would consist merely of Twain's being
asked questions about his life and works by his audience. Is it
possible? I believe it could be done.
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 09:44:04 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: Re: Could it fly?
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hi,
The problem is trying to not have a ton of people
wanting to be there :) It was sort of done when
Macavoy Lane (sp?) presented his paper/performance
at the Mark Twain conference a year ago at the Mark
Twain conference in Elmira.
Jules
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 09:53:05 -0400
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jon Clinch <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Posthumous Publication Schedule
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I don't have my copy of the AUTOBIOGRAPHY handy, so I can't check for
myself -- but do you folks recall the time frames that MT established
for posthumous publication of the writings that he felt were most
inflammatory? I'm thinking fifty and one hundred years after his
death.
Thanks.
Jon Clinch
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 16:46:42 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: "E. Branch" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Notice of Ed Branch's death
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Twain scholar, Ed Branch, 93, died at his home in Oxford, Ohio yesterday,
August 14th. The Mark Twain Forum was still on his daily list.
Mary Jo Branch
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 08:14:49 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: tdempsey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Ed Branch's death
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Would one of you who knew Ed Branch more closely please write and post an
obituary? I swapped multiple e-mails with him beginning around 2002. I was
always amazed his depth of knowledge. He would frequently begin things,
"I've sold my library, but I think..." and then rattle off verbatim
something profound, but little-known. He had an amazingly agile mind --
even though he was in his late 80s and early 90s. He was extremely generous
and still excited by new material or a provocative thought. He enjoyed and
encouraged people who were doing research.
He was kind to me, even when I was reinventing the same wheel he had
created long ago. I remember a specific incident where we corresponded
about a letter in a Hannibal paper from 1861 signed Sam and referencing the
"seat of war." I was quite excited. He was thoroughly familiar with it.
Despite his vast knowledge, it was obvious that Ed never surrendered to the
temptations of scholasticism. He never had a whiff of that
"everyone-who-matters-knows-that" condescencion.
You mourn differently when someone has lived to be 93. Although his life
was fulfilled, it seems to me that Ed's death is a real loss to this field.
It is definitely a milepost. It would be nice if one of you who knew him
better would post an appreciation of his life.
I thought he was a great guy.
Terrell Dempsey
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:25:38 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Alan Gribben <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Notice of Ed Branch's death
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Dear Forum Members,
Any notice of Ed Branch's contributions to our field would probably seem
incomplete, but the recently published A COMPANION TO MARK TWAIN (Blackwell,
2005), p. 548 had this to say about his work: "The earliest years of
Twain's life and writings were most thoroughly charted by Edgar M. Branch in
a series of monographs and articles: THE LITERARY APPRENTICESHIP OF MARK
TWAIN (Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1950); CLEMENS OF THE CALL: MARK TWAIN IN
SAN FRANCISCO (Berkeley: U of California P, 1969); "'My Voice Is Still for
Setchell': A Background Study of 'Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog'," PMLA
82 (December 1967), 591-601; "'The Babes in the Wood': Artemus Ward's
'Double Health' to Mark Twain," PMLA 93 (October 1978), 955-972); "Mark
Twain: The Pilot and the Writer," MARK TWAIN JOURNAL 23: 2 (Fall 1985),
28-43; "A Proposed Calendar of Samuel Clemens's Steamboats, 15 April 1857 to
8 May 1861, with Commentary," MARK TWAIN JOURNAL 24 (Fall 1986), 2-27; and
MARK TWAIN AND THE STAR
CHY BOYS, Quarry Farm Volume Series (Elmira: Center for Mark Twain Studies,
Elmira College, 1992), a study of the Mississippi River pilots'
associations."
My own notes on Ed's publications also include "Bixby vs. Carroll: New
Light on Sam Clemens's Early River Career," MARK TWAIN JOURNAL 30 (Fall
1992): 2-22; MEN CALL ME LUCKY: MARK TWAIN AND THE "PENNSYLVANIA," Miami,
Ohio: Friends of the Library Society, 1985; "'Old Times on the
Mississippi': Biography and Crafsmanship," NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE 45
(1990): 73-87; "A New Clemens Footprint: Soleleather Steps Forward,"
AMERICAN LITERATURE 54 (1982): 497-510; and "Sam Clemens, Steersman on the
JOHN H. DICKEY," AMERICAN LITERARY REALISM 15 (1982): 195-208.
There were numerous others, I'm sure. Clearly we have lost a wonderfully
inquiring mind and (as Terrell noted) a generous and supportive colleague.
Alan Gribben
Auburn University Montgomery
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:27:23 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Ed Branch's death
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This is in Oxford Press:
Edgar Branch
Family-Placed Obituary
BRANCH, Edgar Marquess Age 93, Miami University Research Professor of
English Emeritus and Associate in American Literature, died August 14,
2006 at his home in Oxford, Ohio. He was the husband of Mary Jo
Emerson Branch, whom he married in 1939 and with whom he had three
children: Sydney Elizabeth, Robert Marquess, and Marian Emerson. He
was born March 21, 1913, in Chicago, the son of publisher Raymond S.
Branch and his wife Marian Marquess. His two sisters, Sydney and
Beverly, taught in the Economics and French departments, respectively,
at the Western College for Women in Oxford, where Sydney later became
a member of Western's Board of Trustees. In 1934 Branch earned a B.A.
degree from Beloit College and-as the Beloit College Foreign Fellow-
studied at University College of the University of London, England,
during his junior year. He then attended Brown University for a year
on a fellowship in philosophy, earned a M.A. degree in American
literature from the University of Chicago in 1938, and, as a teaching
fellow, a Ph.D. from the University
of Iowa in 1941. He taught in Miami's English Department from 1941 to
1978. During World War 2 at Miami he instructed cadets in the U.S.
Navy V-12 program and in the Naval Radio School. From 1959 to 1964 he
was chair of the English Department. As chair during a period of rapid
departmental expansion, he helped lay the foundation for the
department's future accreditation for doctoral instruction and
personally hired the entire English department of Wright State
University, when it was being established by the State of Ohio through
the cooperative effort of Miami and Ohio State University. Branch's
literary interests were in Southern and mid-and-far-Western American
Literature of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was the
author or editor of fifteen books and scores of articles, most of them
dealing with the life and writings of two Midwestern authors: Mark
Twain and the Chicago realist James T. Farr
ell. Among his books are The Literary Apprenticeship of Mark Twain;
Clemens of the Call; James T. Farrell; Studs Lonigan's Neighborhood
and the Making of James T. Farrell; and A Paris Year: Dorothy and
James Farrell in Paris, 1931-1932. He was the literary executor of the
James T. Farrell Estate and a member of the Board of Directors of the
Mark Twain Project at the University of California at Berkeley. In
1992 Branch received the Mark Twain Circle of America's "Lifetime
Achievement Award," and in 1994 the "MidAmerica Award for
Distinguished Contributions to the Study of Midwestern Literature,"
from the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature. In 1995 he
was awarded the first "Modern Language Association Prize for a
Distinguished Scholarly Edition" (Mark Twain's Roughing It),
considered the "Pulitzer Prize" of scholarly publication. The
following year he received the "Ohioana Pegasus Award" for "unique and
outstanding cultural contribution by an Ohioan" from the Ohioan
a Society. Branch also was a Guggenheim Foundation Fellow in 1978-79,
and a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities in
1971-1972 and again in 1976-1977. He received Miami's "Benjamin
Harrison Award" in 1978, the "Nancy Dasher Book Award" from the
College English Association of Ohio in 1981, and a "Distinguished
Service Citation Award" from Beloit College in 1979. His contributions
to Miami's undergraduate and graduate programs are /remembered in a
Bachelor Hall seminar room dedicated to him, and in the Weigel-Branch
Scholar-Leader Study in Elliott Hall. He was a co-founder and the
first president of the Miami University Friends of the Library, a
member of Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Psi Honorary Society, Beta Theta
Pi social fraternity, and many professional organizations. Survivors
are his wife Mary Jo, his daughters Sydney Daly and her husband Gerald
of Chatsworth, Georgia, his daughter Marian Williams of Shaker
Heights, his sons-in-law James Diez and Scott
Williams, grandchildren Matthew Diez and his wife Sunita Wagle,
Jeffrey Diez, Robert, Olivia, and Laura Williams and a great grandson,
Kai Diez. A private family service will be held. Memorial
contributions may be made to the Miami University Friends of the
Library. Smith & Ogle Funeral Home assisting the family.
Published in the Hamilton Journal-News from 8/16/2006 - 8/18/2006.
I knew him for a short time,
Jules
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 16 Aug 2006 09:53:50 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Ed Branch's death
I cannot write the obituary that Terrell suggests, but I certainly can echo
his remarks about Ed's generosity, kindness, and scholarship, and share my
own experience. I visited Ed in his home when I bought his library five or
six years ago. We had corresponded by letter, phone and email some years
before and after that visit. The books in his library showed more wear and
tear and evidence of hard use than any I have seen. Ed's working library was
his toolbox, used his scholarly constructions and teaching. He read them and
reread them, and marked them all to pieces, and shared them with others, and
then reread them again and marked them some more. But those familiar with
his scholarship will know that Ed's enduring legacy will be his enthusiastic
trail-blazing explorations of Sam Clemens' early writings and riverboat
career, where there were few tools in the toolbox to help --this was
research driven by a clear-eyed determination to squeeze everything that
could be squeezed from rare and obscure original sources.
Not relevant to Twain studies, but worth mentioning as a sidebar -- When my
wife and I visited, we were struck by how active and fit both Ed and his
wife were --they were in far better shape than anyone their ages that we had
ever met, and better shape than most people half their ages. We told them
so, and asked for their secret (prudent diet, physical activity, positive
outlook). Forty years their juniors, when we got home we looked again in the
mirror, and were truly embrarrassed, and were motivated to change our
lifestyle. Although not quite in fighting trim even now, we've radically
changed our diets and exercise, and we thank Ed and Mary Jo for providing
the impetus and inspiration to do what we knew we had to do. This is a
personal debt now publicly acknowledged.
Ed gave his papers to Miami University some time ago, and most of the books
from his library were long ago sold to young Twainians who could not afford
pristine copies in dust jackets but who were happy to have worn out veterans
of Ed's toolbox. A few special books of his sit on my personal shelves next
to the same titles from the libraries of Ham Hill, Arthur Scott, Walter
Blair, Fred Anderson, et al --and even the less scholarly Clara, Isabel
Lyon, Kate Harrison, and others.
Terrell, I thought he was a great guy, too.
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:57:36 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Janice McIntire-Strasburg <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's accent
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Shelly Fisher Fishkin talks about this in _Lighting Out for the Territory_
with some degree of detail, though I'm not sure that she had any definitive
answers about his accent..more a look at the impersonators and how they
chose accents to use.
Best,
Jan McStras
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:43:57 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Kim Rogers <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Mr. Brown in Hawaii
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Aloha all,
I am researching Twain's fictitious traveling companion in Hawaii, Mr.
Brown. What I'm interested in hearing from you is your opinion on whether
you think Mr. Brown is an example of a classic literary sidekick, a la
Sancho Panza. If so, why. If not, why not. I am focusing my research
strictly on Mr. Brown's appearances in Twain's letters from Hawaii.
Also, if you have other sources to recommend for my research, I am all
ears. I am particularly interested in journal articles, theses, etc. I
have already perused the archives of this listserve and scoured Frear's Mark
Twain and Hawaii, Walker and Dane's Mark Twain's Travels with Mr. Brown,
Ferguson's Mark Twain: Man and Legend, Sanborn's Mark Twain: The Bachelor
Years and Powers' Mark Twain: A Life.
I look forward to the discussion. Let it roll.
Aloha,
Kim Steutermann Rogers
Freelance Writer
P.O. Box 823
Anahola, HI 96703
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:57:50 -0400
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
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From: Joseph Csicsila <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mr. Brown in Hawaii
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Kim,
You ought to contact Tom Tenney. He wrote a thesis or dissertation on
the subject of "Mr. Brown" and Twain. He can be reached via The Citadel
or THE MARK TWAIN JOURNAL. If you run into trouble, write me and I'll
track down his phone or address for you.
Best,
Joe Csicsila
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 17:56:03 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mr. Brown in Hawaii
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Aloha, Kim. Odd coincidence--I have just completed 1866 in my comprehensive
chronology, "Mark Twain, Day-by-Day," and have read all 25 letters of Sam's
to the Sacramento Union. Yes, I believe it was Sanborn who compared the use
of an alter-ego, in this case "Brown," to Sancho Panza.
The source of the name "Brown" is, I believe, William Brown, the
Mississippi
Steamboat pilot: E2809Ca middle-aged, long, slim, bony, smooth-shaven,
horse-faced, ignorant, stingy, malicious, snarling, fault-hunting,
mote-magnifying
tyrant," Who Sam had to "pound some" in that tiff on June 3, 1858.
The alter ego literary ploy was used by Sam with his rival in Virginia
City,
Clement, whom he called "Unreliable." Sam loved a spoof, and also loved to
exaggerate. Carrying a grudge wasn't beyond him either. Sam used people he'd
known or met in so many of his stories. William Brown the nasty riverboat
pilot was only one, but one who was vivid in Sam's memory.
The Brown of the Union letters allowed Sam to make fun of customs, natives,
habits and the like without taking the heat for it. Such poking fun of
foreigners gave the home audience a secure and high-minded reassurance. The
contrast with Brown allowed Sam, the reporter/narrator, to be seen in a more
favorable and acceptable light. So, yes, I agree with Sanborn that Sam's use
of Brown, is indeed an alter-ego sidekick. In the Sagebrush Bohemian,
Nigey Lennon
wrote, "Just as he had used Clement Rice as 'The Unreliable' to good
advantage, Twain created 'Mr. Brown,' ostensibly his traveling companion
during the
Sandwich Islands jaunt, but in reality a catchall for every crude impulse
Twain himself experienced and was ashamed to call his own." p123. I'm not
so
certain that Twain was ashamed of much--but this gave him a way to express
some of his crude humor without pissing off the editors and readers of the
Sacramento Union, from whom Sam depended on a living over the next five
months.
In my research I discovered that Sam wrote many of the letters days after
the fact, or when he'd returned to Honolulu. He even dated one "September
10th"
when he left the Islands aboard the sailing ship Smyrniote July 19th 1866.
Hope this helps,
David H. Fears
Mark Twain, Day by Day - a comprehensive, daily chronology in progress
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 19:34:46 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Subject: Re: Mr. Brown in Hawaii
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One piece of biography I have not seen addressed at length pertains
to the actual traveling companion in Hawaii whom Clemens introduced
to others as "Mr. Brown." He was Edward Tasker Howard of Brooklyn,
New York (born abt. 1844 and died in 1918). Unfortunately, no
correspondence between Howard and Clemens has surfaced and if Howard
left memoirs, they have not been published. Clemens did mistakenly
begin one letter to "Friend Howard" in Dec. 1870. See _Mark Twain's
Letters, Vol. 4, 1870-1871_ pp. 278-279.
Barb
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:13:29 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Where is this message going?
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Dear Group:
As for Edgar Branch, I am sorry that I was not a part of this forum
when he was active to know his works and relationship to Twain. I am
certain I would have thoroughly enjoyed it.
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:15:26 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mr. Brown in Hawaii
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Barb
The note on this page says Edward "Ned" Howard had been Sam's "reluctant
travel companion in Hawaii in June 1866." Howard was a guest at the Volcano
house (and perhaps even the "stranger named Marlette" Sam wrote about in
Roughing
It. ) Check volume 1 of the letters, p 346 note 10.
In June of 1866 Sam stayed at the Volcano House from Sunday, June 3rd to
Thursday, June 7th. From the 8th to the 15th of June, Sam rode 200 miles by
horseback all around the island. Anson Burlingame's son was a companion for
part
of this trip. I don't find any other references to Howard, so I have to
conclude that he only accompanied Sam a short time. It's possible too that
he was
among those who did not want to continue to the lava beds with Sam and the
"stranger" Marlette. I've suspected for some time that either Sam invented
Marlette or changed the name.
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 23:34:16 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: vic doyno <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Notice of Ed Branch's death
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Dear Mrs. Branch:
Please accept my condolences for your loss. I was a Miami student who
never happened to have Dr. Branch as a teacher, but I do remember how much
my fellow students respected and liked him. With sadness for your loss.
Vic Doyno
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 15:30:06 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: The customary white suit
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Dear Group:
Am I correct in remembering that Twain adapted the white suit in his
latter years? Considering he lectured as a young man, is what he was
wearing ever described anywhere?
Still waiting to be shown the twain garb,
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 13:39:44 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: camy <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Twain's favorite work
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Dear Group:
What was Twain's favorite work? Do I remember correctly that it was
"the Prince and the Pauper?" As a matter of fact, what was his least
favorite of all his works?
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 19:12:12 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Joseph Csicsila <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: The customary white suit
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Camy,
Lou Budd contends that Twain began wearing the white suit regularly in
the late1870s. He's collected numerous clippings from Elmira
newspapers, for example, that describe Twain in his signature garb as
early as 1877 or 1878.
Best,
Joe Csicsila
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 2006 19:47:52 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's favorite work
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His favorite was "Joan of Arc." He had many unfavorites, but when the
Jumping Frog story became an overnight sensation, He bemoaned to his
mother=
and sister in a letter (Jan 20th, 1866) that the story, a villainous
backwoods sketch would be singled out by those New York people to compliment
him on. Perhaps his use of Ben Coon's story (told in Angels Camp) didn't
feel much
like his own, even though he'd worked hard at revising it. That story would
be my vote for his least favorite published story. He also wrote a couple
of
plays he thought were horrid.
David H. Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 20 Aug 2006 10:45:24 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "James S. Leonard" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Befriending the Frog
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The Jumping Frog story probably isn't a good choice for a work Twain wished
he hadn't written. My guess is that his complaint to his mother about being
complimented on "a villainous backwoods sketch" wasn't very sincere. After
all, Twain wasn't a man to despise compliments, and he certainly didn't mind
the fame that the story brought him. As for its being Ben Coon's story,
what
he heard in Angel's Camp was hardly more than the kernel of Twain's story,
as
a look at his earlier versions can well demonstrate. Twain's story depends
on
style, and he worked hard over a period of several months (years, if you
count the later revisions) to get it right.
If you think that Twain wanted to distance himself from the story, consider
the following:
1. After its initial publication as "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" in
1865, Twain revised the story for use as the title piece in his first book,
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches (1867).
2. He revised it yet again, gave it a new title ("The Notorious Jumping Frog
of Calaveras County"), and republished it in Mark Twain's Sketches, New and
Old (1875)--along with a French version of the story and his own
"re-translation," all lumped together under the title "The 'Jumping Frog' in
English. Then in French. Then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once
More
by Patient, Unremunerated Toil" (though, of course, Twain in reality wasn't
one to let his toil go unremunerated).
3. In 1894 he took his writing bucket once again to the jumping frog well,
publishing "Private History of the 'Jumping Frog' Story" in the North
American Review.
Jim Leonard
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 11:35:58 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jerry Vorpahl <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Archibald Henderson
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I just came across a reference to a Mark Twain biography by Archibald
Henderson written in 1910, apparently the first ever. I never heard of this
book or author, a distinguished mathametics professor at Chapel Hill, who's
also a major biographer of George B, Shaw. Nor have I ever seen this in a
bibliography or reference from Paine to DeVoto to Kaplan, Powers et al. Can
anyone tell me why he's been iced out? The book can be read online at
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/6873. Thanks for any enlightenment.
Jerry
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:36:42 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Archibald Henderson
I'm not sure if a lack of citations equates with Henderson being iced out,
but his work is not a biography in a strict sense, which may account for it
not being cited as often as other early biographical works. Henderson
himself called it an "interpretation" and perhaps "critical assessment" or
"critical biography" is closer to the Mark. Twain is discussed as a
philosopher, sociologist, humorist, moralist, and world-famous American
icon.
The book was published in the US from English sheets at the end of 1910, and
the English edition appeared March 9, 1911. Henderson had met Twain on one
of his trans-Atlantic crossings, and visitied him at Stormfield after having
a cordial correspondence with Paine, Isabel Lyon, and Ashcroft (I have
Henderson's original archive). It includes a useful bibliography of works
about Twain published between 1870 and September, 1910, and some great (and
now familiar) photographs (two in color) of Mark Twain by Alvin Coburn.
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX
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Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:39:56 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Archibald Henderson and the art of biography
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Glad you asked that. It is a good and fair question.
Almost all biographies before WWII, let alone WWI, inevitably are "iced out'
as major biographies, no matter who the subject is. New materials, letters,
journals, unpublished writings, archives, and so on, provide much more
information as time goes on. Henderson had no access to probably 95% of the
vast wealth of materials that the Bancroft Library at Berkeley has available
to scholars.
Also, methods of literary and historical study, not to mention just our
contemporary ways of looking at life and culture, are drastically different
from 1910.
Nevertheless, we can learn a lot from older biographies. As a matter of
fact, I learned a lot from Henderson's book and was delighted to discover
it. To give one glaring example that is near and dear to my own heart,
among other things, Henderson's volume has a very good overview of Twain's
views of Christianity and the religious life that many biographers have
either overlooked or misread (IMHO).
In addition, these older bios are often rich in anecdote and good
old-fashioned story-telling. An excellent example of this are 19th-century
biographies of Lincoln, which are still great reading. Importantly, they
also vary wildly from author to author--which is another point about getting
iced out. Older bios tend to be much more hagiographic. Not always (see
Van Wyck Brooks).
Henderson tells some good stories. He interviewed and corresponded with
many living people who knew Mark Twain personally. Not to mention the plain
and simple fact that he actually talked to Twain himself! To the best of my
knowledge, no member of this Twain-LIST can say that!
Dr. Harold K. Bush, Jr., Associate Professor
Saint Louis University
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:18:30 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Twain's social influence
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A TV bio on Charles Dickens reminded me of an abandoned thesis topic on his
social influence. That led me to thinking about the influence of Twain on
our society. He certainly identified some wrongs. How would you begin to
assess his influence not merely on other writers, but on the
social-political
environment of his time and subsequently?
Art
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 13:04:33 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Henry Feldman <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Where did I read this?
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Thank you to all who helped me sort out how to "tie in" MT to Newton, Mass.,
where I am planning to give my "Mark Twain on Postcards" talk later this
year. It certainly pays to ask for help. Starting with a fast response
from Barb Schmidt (first out of the blocks as always), I got all I asked for
... and more ... and better. Viz.:
(1) I was conflating two incidents involving two different editors of The
Atlantic;
(2) The expedition was to Concord, in a different direction from Newton
entirely; (3) And, trumping all, thanks to Vic Fischer: MT lectured years
earlier at a church not 300 yards from the site of my planned talk.
What a group!
Henry Feldman
Newtonville, Mass.
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Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:21:28 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Horn Jason <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Archibald Henderson
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Jerry,
I make reference to Henderson in my descriptive guide to Mark
Twain, entries 66 and 266. I have Duckworth and Company as publishers
for the 1911 publication of _Mark Twain_. The second entry is actually
for Arthur Scott's _Mark Twain: Selected Criticism_. Scott here
includes a psychologically probing essay on Twain.
Jason G. Horn, Ph.D
Gordon College
Barnesville, GA 30204
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 22:37:33 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: "Martin D. Zehr" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's social influence
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It may be slightly out-of-date, but I would strongly recommend a look at
either the first (1958) or second (1966) edition of Philip Foner's book,
Mark Twain, Social Critic. Foner's book is an example of first-rate
scholarship on the subject of Twain's social consciousness and his writing
throughout his lifetime. As for Twain's influence on the "social-political
environment of his time and subsequently," it is only necessary to think of
the American historical epochs commonly referrred to as the "Gilded Age" and
"The New Deal."
Martin Zehr
Kansas City, Missouri
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Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:23:36 -0400
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
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From: Peter Salwen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's social influence . . . "New Deal"?
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Twain/Warner can be (and are) credited with christening the Gilded Age, as
it were. But are you suggesting that the Roosevelt administration got the
name "New Deal" from Twain?
Peter Salwen
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Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:49:34 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's social influence . . . "New Deal"?
FDR has been quoted as saying he got the phrase from Ct Yankee. I think
Cyril Clemens may be the person who elicited this information from him. A
quick key word search in the Twain's World CD would probably confirm the
phrase itself, and flipping through some old MTJs might confirm the CC
connection, upon which I have only my memory to rely. I think CC also
published a booklet on "Twain and FDR" and I have a copy but no time to dig
it out this moment.
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2006 20:28:01 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: The customary white suit
Comments: To: [log in to unmask]
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Fellow Twainiacs --
It's my understanding Sam didn't take to the allegedly signature white
suit until 1906, when he went to Washington to testify about proposed
changes
in copywright law. I remember every respectable biographer, from Kaplan to
Shelley and Ron Powers, writing something about this. The weather was still
warm,
apparently, so like most Southerners, he went for the practical.
Still, any theories on how that suit became so much a part of his
public
persona?
I have in my possession a doll made by the now defunct Effanbee
Company,
which has Sam clad in a white suit, with vest, and a burgundy cravat. It's
at
least 20 years old, as is the piece of string licorice I used to make him a
cigar.
Kathy O'Connell,
still in search of gainful, maybe even fun, employment
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 06:35:45 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mark Coburn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's social influence . . . "New Deal"?
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The "New Deal" passage is in Chapter 13 of ACY.
The paragraph begins:
"And now here I was, in a country where a right to say how the country
should be governed was restricted to six persons in each thousand of its
population."
Hank goes on to say that what the peasants needed was "a new deal."
Mark Coburn
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 24 Aug 2006 12:11:45 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain's social influence . . . "New Deal"?
I dug out Cyril Clemens' book on FDR (MT and FDR, 1949) and in it Cryil
gives an account of his Dec 8, 1933 White House interview with FDR, in which
FDR says he met Twain in April, 1891 when his father took him out to the
Hartford house (just before the Clemenses closed it down and moved to Europe
in June). Twain gave FDR a double-autograph. FDR says that it was the keeper
of books at the British Museum (now BL) who at some later date suggested
that he read CtY, and he then goes to explain quite accurately from memory
the passage about the "New Deal" and why he borrowed that phrase. Cyril also
includes a brief intro by Eleanor Roosevelt confirming her late husband's
love of MT and that CtY was his favorite book. I also glanced through
William Gibson's THEODORE ROOSEVELT AMONG THE HUMORISTS (1980) and found no
mentions of FDR, just a good discussion of MT's attitudes toward TR.
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin, TX
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2006 17:31:53 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: John Jones
In-Reply-To:
<[log in to unmask]>
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Hello,
I was wondering if anyone has any evidence
that Mr. John Jones had any communication
with the Clemens or Langdon family.
Please see URL as to who he was.
http://www.cityofelmira.net/history/john_jones.html
I was wondering for a couple of reasons.
One is that I am working on my second book and this information would
fit well with it and I just fufilled my 3rd life dream.
Which was buying a cemetery plot in Woodlawn and it is about 6 plots
from the
Clemens/Langdon family plot, and my plot is also a couple of plots
from Mr. Jones.
My 2nd life dream I completed last year was publishing my book. :)
Thank you so much in advance for your help :)
Jules
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 29 Aug 2006 18:07:10 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Kim Rogers <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mr. Brown in Hawaii
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Barb,
Thanks for the tip. I have uncovered a piece of writing about Twain's
insistence in introducing Howard as Brown. The incident was shared in a
Hawaii publication in 1926--written by the son of the a sugar plantation
proprietor with whom Twain visited on Big Island. Thanks for the tidbit
about the "Friend Howard" letter.
Aloha,
Kim
[log in to unmask] wrote:
One piece of biography I have not seen addressed at length pertains
to the actual traveling companion in Hawaii whom Clemens introduced
to others as "Mr. Brown." He was Edward Tasker Howard of Brooklyn,
New York (born abt. 1844 and died in 1918). Unfortunately, no
correspondence between Howard and Clemens has surfaced and if Howard
left memoirs, they have not been published. Clemens did mistakenly
begin one letter to "Friend Howard" in Dec. 1870. See _Mark Twain's
Letters, Vol. 4, 1870-1871_ pp. 278-279.
Barb