And baseball. For an Iowa station that broadcast the Cubbies, Reagan (just out of college) did play-by-play off a wire-service which, giving only the bare statistics, allowed him to narrate an essentially made-up game. Famously (or famously enough, for those who follow this sort of thing), when the wire feed went down in the middle of a game, Reagan flawlessly described foul after foul, until service was resumed. And, it was when Reagan went to see the team in Spring Training - on Catalina Island - off the California shore, that he stopped in Hollywood, took a screen test... et. al. As ever, Sara Sharon McCoy wrote: > Reagan was a football announcer? That one passed me by. > > One thing that needs to be kept in mind, though is that flatboats and rafts= > were different things. Now that I've read the biographical sketches, it i= > s clear that Lincoln's trips were on flatboats, or what Huck calls "trading= > scows," (Chs. 16 and 19), while Huck and Jim clearly have a piece of raft.= > =20 > > A website called "The Steamboat Times" does a good job, so far as I underst= > and the history of river traffic, of explaining the difference, using sourc= > es and drawings from the era for each, along with photographs (some of whic= > h are pretty harrowing!) -- including the stories of Lincoln's trips. The = > entry on flatboats actually cites Huck's reference to a "trading scow" in L= > ife on the Mississippi (Ch. 3). I'd forgotten it was included there. =20 > > Anyway, here are two links that are short enough (I hope) to avoid the equa= > l signs that I know will plague the rest of this post. > > http://steamboattimes.com/flatboats.html > http://steamboattimes.com/rafts.html =20 > > Fascinating stuff. > > Cheers, > Sharon > ________________________________________ > From: Mark Twain Forum [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Lawrence Howe [LHowe= > @ROOSEVELT.EDU] > Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 8:59 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: Connection between Twain and Lincoln > > Hal--=3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > You may be right that "pretty much everyone knew about Lincoln's raft trips= > =3D > ," but all of the examples you list are presidents whose campaigns were in = > =3D > the era of modern media saturation. Campaigns in the nineteenth century do= > =3D > n't really compare with those we experience now. And even given that, I'm = > =3D > not sure "everyone knows" that Reagan was a football announcer; it's true t= > =3D > hat he was, but I suspect that people are more familiar with his early care= > =3D > er as a radio broadcaster recreating Cubs games from ticker-tape accounts. = > =3D > =3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > Is there evidence of how common the knowledge of AL's raft trips was? =3D0= > A=3D > =3D0A=3D > Best, =3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > --LH =3D0A=3D > Larry Howe=3D0A=3D > Professor of English=3D0A=3D > Chair, Department of Literature and Languages=3D0A=3D > Roosevelt University=3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies, Syddansk Universitet--Od= > =3D > ense, 2014-15=3D0A=3D > ________________________________________=3D0A=3D > From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Hal Bush <bushhk@SLU= > =3D > .EDU>=3D0A=3D > Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2015 7:31 AM=3D0A=3D > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: Connection between Twain and Lincoln=3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > I think I should clarify something about this topic. Pretty much everyone= > =3D > =3D0A=3D > knew about Lincoln's raft trips -- as they knew about him as a "rail=3D0A= > =3D > splitter," or they knew that he grew up in southern Indiana, or lost his=3D= > 0A=3D > mother Nancy Hanks, etc. Just like everyone reading this knows that Reagan= > =3D > =3D0A=3D > was a football announcer on the radio and went to Hollywood to star in=3D0A= > =3D > movies; or that Clinton grew up in rural Ark. with a single Mom, that he=3D= > 0A=3D > "did not inhale," and that he shook the hand of Jack Kennedy; or that=3D0A= > =3D > Barack Obama had a white mother and and a Kenyan father, spent time in=3D0A= > =3D > Indonesia and Hawaii, and that he was a grassroots organizer in Chicago;=3D= > 0A=3D > etc., etc. It was not necessary to read a book as a source for any of=3D0A= > =3D > these details; they are just sort of in the water of presidential=3D0A=3D > campaigns.=3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > Twain would NOT have needed to "read a book" to know that AL took raft=3D0A= > =3D > trips down the Mighty Mississippi.=3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 10:40 PM, Arianne <[log in to unmask]> wrote:=3D0A= > =3D > =3D0A=3D >> Thanks Barbara. I really appreciate your knowledgeable tips!=3D0A=3D >> Chances are Mark Twain read Howell's work, for sure, and Lincoln's raft= > =3D > =3D0A=3D >> trip might have been mentionied in it, too. I'll check your archive link= > =3D > .=3D0A=3D >> THANKS=3D0A=3D >> Arianne Laidlaw=3D0A=3D >> =3D0A=3D >> On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 3:13 PM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>= > =3D > =3D0A=3D >> wrote:=3D0A=3D >> =3D0A=3D >>> I don't think the fact that William Dean Howells wrote an 1860 campaign= > =3D > =3D0A=3D >>> biography _Life of Abraham Lincoln_ should be overlooked. This book is= > =3D > =3D0A=3D >> not=3D0A=3D >>> listed in Gribben's _Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction_. However= > =3D > =3D0A=3D >> in a=3D0A=3D >>> letter dated 5 Aug. 1876, Howells reminded Clemens: "You know I wrote t= > =3D > he=3D0A=3D >>> Life of Lincoln which elected him." The text of Howell's book is also= > =3D > =3D0A=3D >>> available online at archive.org.=3D0A=3D >>> =3D0A=3D >>> Barb=3D0A=3D >>> =3D0A=3D >> =3D0A=3D >> =3D0A=3D >> =3D0A=3D >> --=3D0A=3D >> Arianne Laidlaw A '58=3D0A=3D >> =3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > =3D0A=3D > --=3D0A=3D > Prof. Harold K. Bush=3D0A=3D > Professor of English=3D0A=3D > 3800 Lindell=3D0A=3D > Saint Louis University=3D0A=3D > St. Louis, MO 63108=3D0A=3D > 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)=3D0A=3D > <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>=3D0A=3D= >