Hi,
Don't forget to check out "The Whittier Birthday Speech"--wherein Mark
Twain infuses a euchre game with quotes from some of the best American
poets, who were there at the banquet to honor John Greenleaf Whittier.
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/onstage/whittier.html
and if you haven't seen it already, here's an entire web page committed
to Mark Twain and poker:
http://www.holdempools.com/poker-literature-mark-twain-1835-1910.html
Good luck with your article!
Richar Henzel
========================================================================Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:58:46 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Fascinating! I'll look into it. Thank you! --s
Susan K. Harris
Department of English
========================================================================Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 22:12:36 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Alex Brink Effgen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Mark Twain in Russian
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Hello Twain Forum:
Before I ask my question, here's another report on the Mark Twain House
in Hartford. Two weeks ago I went to the Oktoberfest and came back with
a hearty recommendation. The same can be said about their new Graveyard
Shift Ghost Tour. Great material, different directions around the main
house, kitchen, and basement, with a retelling of the Golden Arm that
is not identical in Twain's manner but the nub of story still made its
victim scream (satisfactorily my mother-in-law).
The best part of the tour (that did not involve scaring my
mother-in-law) was seeing the interior of the house by "gaslight."
Entering the dining room you can feel the ambience of one of Twain's
gatherings. Same with the billiard room. And to go into the master
bedroom, the light by the bed with the pile of books and pipe, then to
look at the cherubs on the headboard...Good stuff.
Anyway, my question is this: what work has been done studying the
history of Twain in translation (besides the Madame Blanc translation
of Jumping Frog into French)? I'm most curious about Twain's work in
Russian, during his life and thereafter. Was his work interpreted
during the 20th century in words that better reflected the Communist
Manifesto?
Curiously Yours,
Alex Effgen
========================================================================Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:13:10 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Harold Bush <[log in to unmask]>
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for cross-cultural analysis, see the stellar work of Professor Ishihara at
Waseda University:
*Mark Twain in Japan: The Cultural Reception of an American Icon* (Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 2005).
Anyway, my question is this: what work has been done studying the
> history of Twain in translation (besides the Madame Blanc translation
> of Jumping Frog into French)?
--
Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Saint Louis University
========================================================================Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:48:38 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Shelley Fisher Fishkin <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mark Twain in Russian
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In addition to Hal Bush's excellent suggestion of seeing Prof.
Ishihara's _Mark Twain in Japan_ for cross-cultural analysis, for
Russian responses see Yan Berenitsky's pieces from _Liturnaya Gazeta_
in the pamphlet "Mark Twain and The Russians: An Exchange of Views."
An excerpt from that as well as an excerpt from the previously-
untranslated book _Mark Twain and America_ by Abel Startsev, one of
the leading Soviet Americanists, will be in _The Mark Twain
Anthology_ forthcoming this March from the Library of America (along
with writing on Twain that originally appeared in Chinese, Danish,
French, German, Italian, Japanese, Spanish, and Yiddish that has not
previously been available in English).
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Professor of English and Director of American Studies, Stanford
University
========================================================================Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:21:31 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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In any U.S. Embassy abroad, and many Consulates, there is someone who is
liaison to university departments teaching American Studies, as well as
larger libraries with international literature collections. The "Public
Diplomacy" section of an embassy is the best contact - try
moscow.usembassy.gov for a start. The main American research library for
Central Europe is at the Embassy in Berlin, which may have more info than
does Moscow, however, as it existed throughout most of the cold war years.
In my experience teaching at a university in Poland, these Embassy
officers are more than happy to help with questions such as yours, and to
put you in touch with academics who have written for conferences or have
published on American writers. They may also have native citizen
"specialists" in literature and other fields, who don't get rotated out
after a 4-year stint, as do foreign service diplomats. The language of
American topics conferences is more often than not English, or bilingual,
and the publication language is the same.
The U.S. State Department in recent years has funded numerous American
Libraries in medium and larger cities in Russian and other countries, a
program that started in the Clinton years. They're placed within U or Public
libraries -- I think the first ones were in Russia. These won't have their
shelved books in the country's tongue, but the librarians will know what's
available.
Translations of Twain are numerous in most of the "Soviet Bloc" countries,
of course, along with Jack London, Hemingway, and the normal catalog of
authors of poetry, prose and drama. As to translations slanted toward the
party line, of course the state publishers, which dominated, and censors
would more likely approve and fund titles and content that seemed to agree
with ideology. If the texts were for school/university study, textbook
committees would review further - same as in our U.S. states. Getting
something past the censors, then as now, is part of the game. By now some
rebels among the academics have surely written on exactly your Communist
Manifesto question.
-Richard R - now in San Francisco
========================================================================Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:05:12 -0700
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From: Darryl Brock <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: MT's umbrella
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Paine relates the story of Twain's quip in 1873 (or so) that he carried
a plain cotton umbrella in England because it was the only kind an
Englishman wouldn't steal. In 1875 a brown, silk English-made umbrella
was stolen from MT during a baseball game. I'm trying to connect the
dots. I seem to recall that MR was given this nicer umbrella while at a
banquet in London, but I can't locate a source to confirm it. Can
anybody help?
========================================================================Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:31:40 +0000
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Would it have been stolen during a baseball game, or a game of cricket, or
rounders??
========================================================================Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:36:10 -0400
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From: Bob Gill <[log in to unmask]>
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>Would it have been stolen during a baseball game, or a game of cricket, or
>rounders??
Baseball. It was a National Association game with Boston visiting Hartford.
(I know that only through reading an article about the incident by Darryl
Brock, the original poster.)
Bob G.
========================================================================Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:59:17 -0000
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From my new book, Mark Twain and Male Friendship (just out!)
As Hartford neighbours, and clearly close friends, the two men did many
things together. They attended 'a grand baseball match between the
"Hartfords" and the "Bostons"' on 18 May 1875. Clemens lost his umbrella
at the game, and made it the excuse for a little self-publicising
humour. Thus Twichell pasted in his journal a newspaper clipping,
presumably from the Hartford Courant: 'TWO HUNDRED AND FIVE DOLLARS
REWARD - At the great base ball match on Tuesday, while I was engaged in
hurrahing, a small boy walked off with an English-made brown silk
UMBRELLA belonging to me, and forgot to bring it back. I will pay $5 for
the return of that umbrella in good condition to my house on Farmington
avenue. I do not want the boy (in an active state) but will pay two
hundred dollars for his remains - SAMUEL L. CLEMENS.'
========================================================================Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:52:01 -0500
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From: Heather Morgan <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain and Russia
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Thanks so much, Brent. Yes, we have the article from the Times. And
another article concerning Mark Twain books presented to the library by the
Deputy Minister of Culture of the U.S.S.R. in 1960. We still have the
books, and I am having the title pages translated (by a local resident who
is Russian) so we can catalog them. There are nine titles.
Heather.
========================================================================Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:18:43 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: "Brent M. Colley" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Connecticut has a Mark Twain Day!
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Good news tonight, just got word from Senator Boucher's office that
April 21, 2010 is Mark Twain Day in Connecticut.
As for the project, I'm finding about two connections a day. Way
better than I ever imagined. There will be several articles released
over the weekend which should cover all of Fairfield County and I'm
hopeful we'll connect even more towns as a result. I've started a
Google map of the locations and will forward that when it is complete.
Current Twain Connections are:
Easton, Connecticut- Helen Keller; Ida M. Tarbell. "I have visited
Stormfield [Twain's home in Redding] since Mark Twain's death
[April,1910]. The flowers still bloom; the breezes still whisper and
sough in the cedars, which have grown statelier year by year; the
birds still sing, they tell me. But for me the place is bereft of its
lover." -Helen Keller
Bethel & Bridgeport, Connecticut- P.T. Barnum; Barnum urged the
Clemens on March 23, 1875 to pay a visit to his summer home,
Waldemere, in Bridgeport, Connecticut: ?You must not creep and crawl
and sweat out of giving us at least a week?s visit with your wife when
the weather is warmer.?
Danbury, Connecticut- Twain had a cat named Danbury and William Webb
Sunderland & his son Philip Nichols Sunderland, the builders of
Twain's Redding home- Stormfield, were from Danbury. Also, Judge
William Scoville Case and State's Attorney Stiles Judson visited Twain
on November 19, 1908. They tried the Stormfield burglars. February 21,
1872 - Twain lectured on "Roughing It".
Ridgefield, Connecticut- Architect, Cass Gilbert, who is best known
for the Woolworth Building in NYC, also owned the Keeler Tavern and
was a close friend of Twain's. Also, Edward Windsor Kemble and Henry
Knox of Ridgefield are connected to Twain.
Westport, Connecticut- Ned Wakeman, who was the prototype for Twain's
ship captain in Roughing It. Twain wrote: "I'd rather travel with that
old portly, hearty, jolly, boisterous, good-natured sailor...than with
any other man I've ever come across,"
Norwalk, Connecticut- E.K. Lockwood (Lockwood Museum) traveled with
Twain while he was researching/writing Innocents Abroad.
CosCob/Greenwich, Connecticut- Jean Webster, talented daughter of
Twain business partner Charles Webster.
Windsor, Connecticut- Elisha Bliss, Jr. of American Publishing
Company. Clemens stayed with the Blisses while in Hartford in August
and October 1868 to work on his book Innocents Abroad.
Manchester, Connecticut- The Monday evening club in which Mark Twain
participated met at the Charles Cheney mansion in Manchester, about
0.2 mile from Cheney Hall. The Monday Evening Club was an organization
which included the best minds of Hartford. Dr. Horace Bushnell, Prof.
Calvin E. Stowe, and J. Hammond Trumbull founded it back in the
sixties, and it included such men as Rev. Dr. Parker, Rev. Dr. Burton,
Charles H. Clark, of the Courant, Warner, and Twichell, with others of
their kind. Clemens had been elected after his first sojourn in
England (February, 1873), and had then read a paper on the "License of
the Press." The club met alternate Mondays, from October to May. There
was one paper for each evening, and, after the usual fashion of such
clubs, the reading was followed by discussion. Members of that time
agree that Mark Twain`s association with the club had a tendency to
give it a life, or at least an exhilaration, which it had not
previously known.
Chatham, Connecticut- has a guest book signature by Twain at an inn he
stayed at there.
New Haven, Connecticut- Twain visited New Haven in 1885 and befriended
Warren McGuinn, an African-American student who was struggling to
remain in school. Twain paid the young man's expenses at Yale and
McGuinn went on to become a respected lawyer who would later mentor
Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.
Saybrook , Connecticut- Fenwick (Hall) Hotel where Twain and family
stayed and where some believe he began writing Tom Sawyer.
Hartford, Connecticut- Obviously the Hartford area has many friends
and the Mark Twain House Museum. January 31, 1873 Twain lectured in
Hartford - Benefit for Father Hawley, Allyn Hall, Hartford,
Connecticut. Topic "Sandwich Islands". All services having been
donated, the benefit netted $1,500 for Father Hawley.
Vernon, East Hartford, Buckland, Vernon, Tolland, Westford, Ashford,
North Ashford, West Woodstock, and New Boston, Connecticut- All these
towns connected an amazing trek via Joe Twichell and Twain made from
Hartford to Boston in 1874.
"Livy darling, we started from the end of east river bridge, East
Hartford, 2 hours & a half ago. Vernon is 11 miles from Hartford. The
day is simply gorgeous?perfectly [matchless]"
Norfolk, Connecticut- Both Twain?s daughters Jean and Clara stayed at
the sanitarium in Norfolk. September 22, 1906: Clara Clemens Concert,
Eldridge Gymnasium, Norfolk, Connecticut.
Simsbury, Connecticut- Twain lectured Simsbury?s McLean Seminary in
1891. Also, Clemens and Joe Twitchell often visited the Daniel
Wadsworth Tower.
Sharon, Connecticut- Frank and Harriet Sprague. Frank J. Sprague is an
amazing individual. He was an American naval officer and inventor who
contributed to the development of the electric motor, electric
railways, and electric elevators. He became known as the ?Father of
Electric Traction?. Frank and Harriet attended Clara's wedding in
October 1909.
Fairfield, Connecticut- A "Mr. Forbes" of Fairfield, CT visited
Stormfield on November 14, 1908. We're looking into who he was.
New Britian, Connecticut- After his December 13, 1869 lecture in New
Britain, Connecticut, Clemens wrote James Redpath directing a change
in the advertisement of his lecture.
?About twice a week I have to make an annoying apology to the audience.?
Pursuant to Clemens?s letter of 10 May 1869, Redpath had distributed a
circular to lyceums announcing that ?Mark Twain?s? only lecture for
the season of 1869?70 will be entitled ?The Curiosities of
California?. Clemens had remained committed to such a lecture at least
into early summer, then abandoned it by 27 September, five weeks
before the beginning of his tour. Redpath must have adjusted his
publicity promptly, perhaps with an amended circular, for newspaper
advertisements in host cities generally reported the new topic??Our
Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands.? Nevertheless, Clemens
sometimes had to explain the substitution at the last moment.
Norwich, Connecticut- November 13 & 14, 1869 Twain lectured in
Norwich, Connecticut. Topic: "Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich
Islands".
West Meriden, Connecticut- Twain lectured in West Meriden sometime
around December 11-13th, 1869.
East Haddam, Connecticut- William "Will" Gillette. The Sellers play
was given in Hartford, in January (1875), to as many people as could
crowd into the Opera House. Raymond had reached the perfection of his
art by that time, and the townsmen of Mark Twain saw the play and the
actor at their best. Kate Field played the part of Laura Hawkins, and
there was a Hartford girl in the company; also a Hartford young man,
who would one day be about as well known to playgoers as any
playwright or actor that America has produced. His name was William
Gillette, and it was largely due to Mark Twain that the author of
Secret Service and of the dramatic "Sherlock Holmes" got a fair public
start. Clemens and his wife loaned Gillette the three thousand dollars
which tided him through his period of dramatic education. Their faith
in his ability was justified.
Waterbury, Connecticut- On May 21, 1901, the Waterbury Clock Co.
received a letter from Mark Twain stating, "Please send me a watch. $1
enclosed." This refers to the highly successful and inexpensive "Watch
That Made The Dollar Famous" made by the company. In Following the
Equator, he wrote: "In a minor tournament I won the prize, which was a
Waterbury watch. I put it in my trunk."
Stonington, Connecticut- James Hammond Trumbull. Trumbull was born in
Stonington, Connecticut. The Hartford Monday Evening Club (which
Trumbull had helped found in January 1869) gathered fortnightly to
hear and discuss an original essay presented by one of its members.
Clemens attended the meeting of 17 February 1873 and heard
Congregational clergyman Nathaniel J. Burton read an essay entitled
?Individualism.?
To James Hammond Trumbull
15 February 1873
J H Trumbull Esq
Dr. Sir:
I shall be very glad indeed to meet with the Club as a member on next
Monday Evening, & am thankful, too.
And I willingly ?excuse the informal character? of the notice?am even
grateful for it; for if you had started in to make it formal you might
have got it in [Sanscritt ], & that would just simply have made
trouble with
Ys Truly
Sam. L. Clemens
Southington, Connecticut- Joseph Hopkins Twichell (1838-1918) was
pastor of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church at 814 Asylum Street
in Hartford. He was born in Southington, Connecticut. Twitchell played
a significant role in many of the most important events occuring in
the Clemens family. He was the presiding clergyman at Sam's marriage
with Livy, and at their daughter Clara's wedding with Ossip
Gabrilowitsch. Twitchell also provided support during the darkest
periods for the family; he was present at the death of Susy, and
officiated over the funerals of both Livy and Jean, and well as over
Sam's funeral in New York City.