Before he became a riverboat pilot Sam worked as a type setter, trying his hand in New York. Having failed at making a living he returned home. “I went back to the Mississippi Valley, sitting upright in the smoking-car two or three days and nights. When I reached St. Louis I was exhausted. I went to bed on board a steamboat that was bound for Muscatine. I fell asleep at once, with my clothes on, and didnt’ wake again for thirty-six hours” .

The problem is that there were no railroads to speak of in St. Louis.

https://twainsgeography.com/episode/return-mississippi-river-valley

On returning to New York City, after a self-imposed exile following the death of their daughter Susie, the Clemens family stayed for a time at this hotel, which as also the location of Tesla's receivers for his experiments in wireless transmission of power.

https://twainsgeography.com/location/hotel-earlington-nyc

Recently, multiple new accounts posted a charcoal portrait of Mark Twain, falsely claiming it as their work and infringing copyright. These spam accounts have been suspended by Reddit and their posts have been removed. The true creator of this beautiful portrait is u/ericarmusik and he originally posted this work on this subreddit here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MarkTwain/comments/o7s17c/my_portrait_of_mark_twain_charcoal_on_paper_18_x

If you see more spam posts plagiarising this artwork or any other user's original contribution, please report it ASAP to us moderators using the "Message the mods" button. Do not post comments on their plagiarised posts. Our sincere apologies to Eric, the real artist!

Summer of 1843: The first year of Sam’s long summer visits to the Quarles Farm. These visits would continue until Sam was eleven or twelve (1847-8). He loved his uncle John Quarles, a warm, affable, hospitable, country man who told jolly jokes and played with the children. The Quarles had eight children and about thirty slaves. These idyllic summers were grist for many of Sam’s later stories. Sam had a favorite playmate cousin a year younger than him, Tabitha Quarles , they called “Puss.” He loved cats. Puss recalled:

When he arrived at the farm father would lift his big carpet bag out of the wagon and then would come Sam with a basket in his hand. The basket he would allow no one except himself to carry. In the basket would be his pet cat. This he had trained to sit beside himself at the table. He would play contentedly with a cat for hours, and his cats were very fond of him and very patient when he tried to teach them tricks.

Quarles Farmstead

Hannibal has had a hard time of it ever since I can recollect, and I was "raised" there. First, it had me for a citizen, but I was too young then to really hurt the place. Next, Jimmy Finn, the town drunkard, reformed, and that broke up the only saloon in the village. But the temperance people liked it; they were willing enough to sacrifice public prosperity to public morality. And so they made much of Jimmy Finn - dressed him up in new clothes, and had him out to breakfast and to dinner, and so forth, and showed him off as a great living curiosity - a shining example of the power of temperance doctrines when earnestly and eloquently set forth. Which was all very well, you know, and sounded well, and looked well in print, but Jimmy Finn couldn't stand it. He got remorseful about the loss of his liberty; and then he got melancholy from thinking about it so much; and after that, he got drunk. He got awfully drunk in the chief citizen's house, and the next morning that house was as if the swine had tarried in it. That outraged the temperance people and delighted the opposite faction. The former rallied and reformed Jim once more, but in an evil hour temptation came upon him, and he sold his body to a doctor for a quart of whiskey, and that ended all his earthly troubles. He drank it all at one sitting, and his soul went to its long account and his body went to Dr. Grant. This was another blow to Hannibal. Jimmy Finn had always kept the town in a sweat about something or other, and now it nearly died from utter inanition.

https://twainsgeography.com/location/hannibal-missouri

Recently I’ve been adding entries from David Fears’ monumental volumes on Mark Twain’s Life, “Mark Twain Day By Day”, to the Twain’s Geography web site. The earliest entries are the years of Sam Clemens’ youth in Hannibal, Missouri. An entry in the Library of Congress’ history of America web site describes this time as:

“Democracy and territorial expansion led most Americans to feel optimistic about the future. These forces, reinforced by widespread religious revivals, also led many Americans to support social reforms. These reforms included promoting temperance, creating public school systems, improving the treatment of prisoners, the insane, and the poor, abolishing slavery, and gaining equal rights for women. Some of these reforms achieved significant successes. The political climate supporting reform declined in the 1850s, as conflict grew between the North and South over the slavery question.”

The page on Twain’s Hannibal Years has a link to the Day By Day entries for the years 1835 to 1853. US Presidents during this time were: Andrew Jackson, Martin Van Buren, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, James K. Polk, Zackary Taylor, Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce.

https://twainsgeography.com/epoch/hannibal-years

Comments on this material are always welcome.

https://youtube.com/shorts/K_p7FgPPbUQ?feature=share

Just moved into a new home and found this in the attic. Seems like an old collectible card. Anyone have insight?

Winston Churchill became a Member of Parliament aged 25. In the same month, he published Ian Hamilton's March, a book about his South African experiences, which became the focus of a lecture tour in November through Britain, America and Canada. Members of Parliament were unpaid and the tour was a financial necessity. In America, Churchill met Mark Twain, President McKinley and Vice President Theodore Roosevelt, who he did not get on with.

His first American audience was at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Churchill supported British Imperialism and his reception in New York was boycotted by many American anti-imperialists. Twain agreed to introduce Churchill but delivered a scathing indictment of imperialism in the process. Before concluding that England and America were “kin in sin” for their respective wars in South Africa and the Philippines, he noted how they were also united when they “both stood timorously by at Port Arthur and wept sweetly and sympathizingly and shone while France and Germany helped Russia to rob the Japanese.”

Regardless of the outcome, the chance to meet Mark Twain was a significant event in young Winston Churchill’s life. In A Roving Commission: My Early Life (1930), he later recalled what happened when they met that evening:

Of course we argued about the war. After some interchanges I found myself beaten back to the citadel “My country right or wrong.” “Ah,” said the old gentleman, “When the poor country is fighting for its life, agree. But this was not your case.”

Churchill asked Twain to sign a set of his works, and he interpreted the inscription Twain wrote in the first volume as a “gentle admonition”: “To do good is noble; to teach others to do good is nobler, and no trouble.” [Twain] “showed me much kindness”. “It is 55 years since I saw Mark Twain but he is still vivid in my memory – the most interesting man I ever knew”.

Twain had first met Churchill in March of 1900 at a dinner at Sir Gilbert Parker’s home.From Mark Twain’s Autobiography: Dictated[August]17, 1907 Mr. Clemens dines with Sir Gilbert and Lady Parker.

There was talk of that soaring and brilliant young statesman, Winston Churchill, son of Lord Randolph Churchill and nephew of a duke. I had met him at Sir Gilbert Parker’s seven years before, when he was twenty-three years old, and had met him and introduced him to his lecture audience, a year later, in New York, when he had come over to tell of the lively experiences he had had as a war correspondent in the South African war, and in one or two wars on the Himalayan frontier of India. Sir Gilbert Parker said—

“Do you remember the dinner here seven years ago?”

“Yes,” I said, “I remember it.”

“Do you remember what Sir William Vernon Harcourt said about you?”

“No.”

“Well, you didn’t hear it. You and Churchill went up to the top floor to have a smoke and a talk, and Harcourt wondered what the result would be. He said that whichever of you got the floor first would keep it to the end, without a break; he believed that you, being old and experienced, would get it, and that Churchill’s lungs would have a half hour’s rest for the first time in five years. When you two came down, by and by, Sir William asked Churchill if he had had a good time, and he answered eagerly, ‘Yes.’ Then he asked you if you had had a good time. You hesitated, then said without eagerness, ‘I have had a smoke.’”

If I remember correctly, Sam Clemens worked for a junior senator from Nevada while simultaneously covering Congress as a freelancer during his time in Washington, D.C. A question my colleagues in the Capitol and I are trying to answer is: Did Twain work out of the House or Senate Press Gallery, or both?

What are these weird symbols below the chapter? if it helps, its a stormfield edition

I got this tale from the July 3, 1899 entry in David Fears’ Mark Twain Day by Day:

It seems that both Mark Twain and the Reverend Canon Wilberforce attended a luncheon at Hatfield House. Canon Wilberforce was there and left rather early. When Clemens was ready to go there was just one hat remaining. It was not his, and he suspected, by the initials on the inside, that it belonged to Canon [Basil] Wilberforce. However, it fitted him exactly and he wore it away.

Dear Canon Wilberforce,—It is 8 P.M. During the past four hours I have not been able to take anything that did not belong to me; during all that time I have not been able to stretch a fact beyond the frontiers of truth try as I might, & meantime, not only my morals have moved the astonishment of all who have come into contact with me, but my manners have gained more compliments than they have been accustomed to. This mystery is causing my family much alarm. It is difficult to account for it. I find I haven’t my own hat. Have you developed any novelties of conduct since you left Mr. Murray’s, & have they been of a character to move the concern of your friends? I think it must be this that has put me under this happy charm; but, oh dear! I tremble for the other man! / Sincerely yours, / S.L. Clemens.

Before receiving Sam’s note, Basil Wilberforce answered; Sam received it at 8:30 p.m.:

Dear Mr. Clemens,—I have been conscious of a vivacity and facility of expression this afternoon beyond the normal and I have just discovered the reason!! I have seen the historic signature “Mark Twain” in my hat!! Doubtless you have been suffering from a corresponding dullness & have wondered why. I departed precipitately, the hat stood on my umbrella and was a new Lincoln & Bennett—it fitted me exactly and I did not discover the mistake till I got in this afternoon. Please forgive me. If you should be passing this way to-morrow will you look in and change hats? or shall I send it to the hotel? / I am, very sincerely yrs., / Basil Wilberforce

This is one more clergyman that Sam felt akin with in some way.

Where can I read Twain's story - "The First Melon I Ever Stole"? Thank you

https://preview.redd.it/j9ovqoptonld1.png?width=800&format=png&auto=webp&s=09a357fb95cdd5e16e6b9ccf05e39abfc5af7648

I came across a portion of a Mark Twain quote in an issue ASM of all places, where Twain is quoted by none other than Captain America himself,

I think it may come from some of his letters which were published posthumously, but I haven't been able to confirm that and I was wondering the background of it.

The gist of the quote is it is each citizen's responsibility to stand up for what he believes in regardless of what the press and the politicians say, "Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man." and "If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country--hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of."

But on a further reading of the whole quote makes it clear he is speaking in opposition to America's involvement in some war Clemons views as unjust and the media and politicians are pushing. "Against our traditions we are now entering upon an unjust and trivial war, a war against a helpless people, and for a base object--robbery." and "To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, "Our Country, right or wrong," and urge on the little war."

I'm just not sure which war he is talking about, was it WW1? The Spanish-American War? some other conflict we got involved it from that time period?

Can any of you Twainheads help a fellow out?

https://preview.redd.it/ncbe39huek9d1.png?width=338&format=png&auto=webp&s=22ee00afab1ac4d4bda5f54224fc154e9380f4b1

Of course, Clarence couldn’t keep his days straight and has us believing for a whole day it had been the 19th…

I am currently reading "Following the Equator" and I assume I am just not getting the joke? Can someone please explain?

So I picked up a small collection of stories titled “the mysterious stranger”. With other chapters? Being a fable, the deceitful turkey, and the burglar alarm. Is the mysterious stranger it’s own self contained story or does the stranger show up in these other stories

Thanks!

Share Mark Twain artworks by you and others. This includes your favorite photos from the life of Sam Clemens. Mine is Twain in tuxedo by Matthew Brady

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In order to escape the Civil War, Sam Clemens, not yet known as Mark Twain, headed west. Orion Clemens, Sam’s older brother, had been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory by Abraham Lincoln. Sam, still relatively wealthy from his days as a river boat pilot, financed the trip.

Mark Twain wrote of his experiences in his book “Roughing It”, published in 1872. This book is not a true travelogue nor a volume designed to provide detailed information about the terrain traversed. It does provide a very entertaining, albeit subjective, narrative of the journey. Included is a vignette that inspired the creation of Wile E. Coyote.

Much of the material in those pages of my web site related to Mark Twain’s journey west are from an earlier journey west, taken by Richard Francis Burton and contained in his book “The City of the Saints”. Burton had followed the same route only the year before, 1860. Horace Greeley, too, had followed some of the same route in 1859 and his narrative is also included.

Pony Express and stagecoach stops are all mapped and provide the punctuation for the three journeys and much of the description provided by these three authors relate to their experiences at these stops along the way.

The primary theme of my site, “Twain’s Geography”, is to provide the context of Twain’s life. I leave it to others for analysis of his writings.

https://twainsgeography.com/epoch/sam-clemens-goes-west

Naturally I started with the illustrated children's edition. It was one of the best ones the school library had.