Twain, Mark: Selected Obituaries Page 9

  Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born November 30, 1835, in the little town of Florida, Monroe County, Mo. His father was accounted a man of "education and social importance" in the frontier town of that early day. Three years after the son's birth the family moved to Hannibal on the Mississippi, where Samuel at twelve years of age first touched printer's ink. His young life was somewhat adventurous, as the obituary in the New York Sun recounts:

  "He determined that if he must be a printer he would be a tramp printer, and before he was sixteen he had worked in the composing-rooms of newspapers in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and New York. The river called him back. In 1851 he returned to Hannibal determined to become a pilot, or as it was called, 'to learn the river.' This was not an inexpensive matter. Master pilots demanded $500 to take a cadet and thoroughly instruct him in the business. Young Clemens could not then pay any premium, but he worked for several years with the sole end in view, making money as a printer at times, at times working as a clerk on river-boats. In 1857 he was able to satisfy a master pilot of his ability to pay the $500 fee, and two years later he had a pilot's license, his first boat being the Alonso Child under Captain De Haven.

  "In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate Army of Gen. Sterling Price, but after a few months he returned to St. Louis to join his brother Orrin, who had been appointed Secretary of the Territory of Nevada as his clerk to Carson City.

  "Up in Esmeralda County, Nev., near the present Goldfield mines, in a camp called Aurora, men were finding rich gold quartz in surface outcroppings, and the excitement of this 'rush' drew Clemens from his desk in Carson City. The romance of a new mining-camp near the very peak of the Sierra Nevada addrest the sympathies of the young adventurer more than the hard work of prospecting for pay rock.

  "He made no discoveries of importance in mining, but he made many acquaintances with stage-drivers, gamblers, and 'bad' men, all of whom appear in 'Roughing It.'"

  After a year of mining-camp life he returned to newspaper work on the staff of The Enterprise in Virginia City, Nev. It was here that some of his broadly humorous articles appeared over the signature "Mark Twain," and were copied widely by papers of the Pacific Coast. Then:

  "The San Francisco Call made an offer to the writer of the Mark Twain stories, and Clemens in 1865 went on The Call staff, but he remained there only six months, for the mining-camp called again. In Calaveras County, Cal., he found little gold dust, but he did find material for stories which gave him his first fame east of the Rockies, the stories in the book 'The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.'

  "In 1866 Clemens went to the Sandwich Islands and wrote from there some sketches for the Sacramento Union, which sketches were the basis for his first lectures delivered in San Francisco after his return from Honolulu.

  In the following year the stories of the 'Jumping Frog' book were published, and Mark Twain became known in the Eastern States as a writer of exaggerated humor. It was the reputation these stories gained for him that prompted some newspapers editors to select Mr. Clemens to go with a party of tourists on a journey abroad and write for his employers what would now be called a 'syndicate' letter. This trip resulted (1869) in the publication of 'Innocents Abroad,' an extended revision of the letters, and with the instant success of that book the writer became famous in this country and most of the countries of Europe.

  "In spite of the very profitable sales of the book, which would have warranted the author in devoting all his time to book-writing, he soon after his return from that now famous trip became editor of the Buffalo Express. This was probably in pursuance of a contract entered into before the trip to Europe. He remained in Buffalo only two years, marrying there Miss Olivia Langdon, whose acquaintance he had made on the ocean voyage.

  "Mr. Clemens went to Hartford to live, and at once began work the material he had gathered while he was not gathering other pay ore in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and out of that material came the book 'Roughing It.' This fixt his reputation as a story-teller and humorist, and his work was urgently demanded by editors on both sides of the ocean. Contributing frequently to magazines, he wrote also in the following year, collaborating with Charles Dudley Warner, 'The Gilded Age,' which was soon successfully dramatized.

  "Next came from his pen what many Americans and nearly all English critics consider his best work of fiction, 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.' (1876).

  "After writing several other books Mr. Clemens in 1884 invested largely in the publishing enterprise of the Charles L. Webster Company, which had contracted to pay Mrs. Grant $500,000 for the copyright of General Grant's autobiography. Ten years later the failure of this firm left Mr. Clemens in debt far beyond his resources.

  "It was believed by his friends and advisers that a round-the-world lecture tour would help to recoup Mr. Clemens, and the tour was undertaken. Its success was vastly beyond the most hopeful expectations; the author was received everywhere with high social and sometimes with civic honors; his lectures were everywhere attended by delighted crowds and frequently delivered under the 'patronage' of the most distinguished people. The profits of the tour enabled Mr. Clemens to pay every cent he owed and left him a considerable balance."

  Mark Twain's later books were: "A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur," 1889; "The American Claimant," 1892; "The œ1,000,000 Bank Note," 1893; "Pudd'nhead Wilson," 1894; "Tom Sawyer Abroad," 1894; "Joan of Arc," 1896; "More Tramps Abroad," 1897; "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg," 1900; "Christian Science," 1907.

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  Outlook Obituary Notice

  From Outlook

  30 April 1910

  Anonymous

  It is well within the literal truth to say that no American writer of our day has given so large a number of people so great an amount of innocent entertainment as Samuel Langhorne Clemens. This is obviously a matter quite apart from the question of the fineness of literary quality in his work. On that point critical opinions differ; there are those who consider that Mr. Clemens "Joan of Arc" may claim high place among seriously imaginative works of literature, and that in other writings he showed at times far more than the talent of the whimsical humorist. Certainly in those delightful boys, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and in such tales as "The Prince and the Pauper," he did leave in his reader's memory-gallery distinct and individual character creations. It is really a tribute to his variety of interest that readers of many degrees of culture and taste are champions of half a dozen different specimens of his art as entitled to be called favorite and best: one, for instance, thinks the "Jumping Frog" inimitable; another deems it immensely overrated and prefers the keen irony of "A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court"; others select as deliciously humorous certain sketches of Mark Twain's experiences abroad or even bits of his longer books like "Roughing It" and "The Gilded Age"; while almost all enjoy "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn" because, as one critic has said, "the author has here surpassed in that he has vividly portrayed the American boy" and given his readers "an adequate impression of the large, homely, spontaneous life led by native Americans in the great valley of the Mississippi."

  Mr. Clemens was half way through his seventy-fifth year when he died at "Stormfield," on Thursday of last week. His early life in Missouri, his rambling experiences in mining, steamboat piloting, and newspaper work, his first book-success with "Innocents Abroad," the long list of romances, stories, and sketches that followed, together with later eventful incidents, notable among which was the bestowal of his doctor's degree at Oxford three years ago -- all this is familiar to most Americans, and much of the story has been told discursively and oddly in Mark Twain's own purposely inconsecutive autobiographical papers. One of many tributes to his memory from fellow writers may be quoted-that of James Whitcomb Riley: "The world has lost not only a genius, but a man of striking character, of influence, and of boundless resources. He knew the human heart, and he was sincere. He knew children, and this knowledge made him tender."

  In personal friendships and family li
fe Mr. Clemens was peculiarly fortunate. He was in certain ways also a national figure. Repeatedly his force and wit were used to strengthen public causes and to encourage right doing and right thinking. No advocacy of public nature, however, could have more lasting power than the private example he gave of scrupulous honor. He voluntarily bore for years the burden of financial liability incurred in his name through the publishing business in which he had been unwise enough to become a partner. Refusing to accept the legal benefits of bankruptcy, he set to work, like Walter Scott, to pay his debtors by his pen; and that he not only succeeded but re-established his own fortunes, was a general cause for felicitation and rejoicing.

  Mark Twain's humor had not only the element of exaggeration which is said to be more especially characteristic of American writers of this class; it had also drollery and unexpected turns, as unlike Artemus Ward on the one had as they were distant from Thackeray on the other. In common with most other professed humorists, his flint did not always strike fire; there were undoubtedly commonplace and even tedious passages; he did not often deal successfully with plot, and sometime he mistook the melodramatic for the dramatic. But his best was so very good that his popularity has become fixed and general, and there is no doubt that he will continue to be read both here and abroad for many years to come.

  That Mark Twain more often then not had serious purpose in his writing could easily be shown; sometimes that purpose was to hold up to contempt despicable or sordid actions or traits of character; sometimes that purpose wit was to teach affirmatively and aggressively principles of fairness, truth, kindness, and generosity. Mark Twain's influence never tended toward meanness, snobbery, ostentation. More also than most writers with a popular following, he established in his books and sketches a feeling of personal friendliness, almost intimacy, with men of all sorts; his works are on the shelf of professor and mechanic. The fact that thousands with whom "Mark Twin" is a household word, as the name not only of a writer but of an individual, might have to think twice before recalling the name Samuel L. Clemens is perhaps unique in the history of pseudonyms, and has a significance of its own.

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  Century Magazine Obituary Notice

  MARK TWAIN AS OUR EMMISSARY

  From Century Magazine

  December 1910

  By George Ade

  Mark Twain had a large following of admirers who came to regard themselves as his personal friends. Many of them he never met. Most of them never saw him. All of them felt a certain relationship and were flattered by it. Men and women in all parts of our outspread domain, the men especially, cherished a private affection for him. They called him by his first name, which is the surest proof of abiding fondness. Andrew Jackson was known as "Andy"; Abraham Lincoln was simply "Abe" to every soldier boy; and as a later instance, we have "Teddy." Some men settle down to a kinship with the shirt-sleeve contingent, even when they seem indifferent to the favor of the plain multitude.

  Mark Twain never practised any of the wiles of the politician in order to be cheered at railway stations and have Chautauquas send for him. He did not seem over-anxious to meet the reporters, and he had a fine contempt for most of the orthodox traditions cherished by the people who loved him. Probably no other American could have lived abroad for so many years without being editorially branded as an expatriate. In some sections of our country it is safer to be an accomplice in homicide, or a stand-patter in politics, than it is to be an "expatriate." When Mr. Clemens chose to take up his residence in Vienna he incurred none of the criticism visited upon Mr. William Waldorf Astor. Every one hoped he would have a good time and learn the German language. Then when the word came back that he made his loafing headquarters in a place up an alley known as a stube or a rathskeller, or something like that, all the women of the literary clubs, who kept his picture on the high pedestal with the candles burning in front of it, decided that stube meant "shrine." You may be sure that if they can find the place they will sink a bronze memorial tablet immediately above the main faucet.

  Of course, the early books, such as "Innocents Abroad," "Roughing It," and "The Gilded Age" gave him an enormous vogue in every remote community visited by book-agents. The fact that people enjoyed reading these cheering volumes and preserved them in the bookcase and moved some of the classics by E. P. Roe and Mrs. Southworth in order to make room for "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn," does not fully account for the evident and accepted popularity of Mark Twain. Other men wrote books that went into the bookcase but what one of them ever earned the special privilege being hailed by his first name?

  When a man has done his work for many years more or less under the supervising eye of the public, the public learns a good many facts about him that are in no way associated with his set and regular duties as a servant of the public. Out of the thousand-and-one newspaper mentions and private bits of gossip and whispered words of inside information, even the man in the street comes to put an estimate on the real human qualities of each personage, and sometimes these estimates are surprisingly accurate, just as they are often sadly out of focus.

  Joseph Jefferson had a place in the public esteem quite apart from that demanded by his skill as an actor. Players and readers of newspapers came to know in time that he was a kind and cheery old gentleman of blameless life, charitable in his estimates of professional associates, a modest devotee of the fine arts, a outdoor sportsman with the enthusiasm of a boy, and the chosen associate of a good many eminent citizens. When they spoke of "Joe" Jefferson in warmth and kindness, it was not because he played "Rip Van Winkle" so beautifully, but because the light of his private goodness had filtered through the mystery surrounding every popular actor. William H. Crane is another veteran of the stage who holds the regard of the public. It knows him as the kind of man we should like to invite up to our house to meet the "folks." The sororities throb with a feeling of sisterhood for Miss Maude Adams because the girls feel sure that she is gracious and charming and altogether "nice."

  Mark Twain would have stood very well with the assorted grades making up what is generally known as the "great public" even if he had done his work in a box and passed it out through a knot-hole. Any one who knew our homely neighbors as he knew them and could tell about them in loving candor, so that we laughed at them and warmed up to them at the same time, simply had to be "all right." Being prejudiced in his favor, we knew that if he wanted to wear his hair in a mop and adopt white clothing and talk with a drawl, no one would dare to suggest that he was affecting the picturesque. He was big enough to be different. Any special privilege was his without the asking. Having earned 100 per cent. of our homage he did n't have to strain for new effects.

  His devotion to the members of his family and the heroic performance in connection with the debts of the publishing house undoubtedly helped to strengthen the general regard for him. Also, the older generation, having heard him lecture, could say that they had "met" him. Every one who sat within the soothing presence of the drawl, waiting to be shirked up on every second sentence with a half-concealed stroke of drollery, was for all time a witness to the inimitable charm of the man and the story-teller.

  The knowledge of his unaffected democracy became general. No doubt the housewives loved him for his outspoken devotion to home-cooking. Has any one told in public the anecdote of his tribute to an humble item in the bill of fare? It was at a dinner party in Washington. Senator Hearst was giving the dinner, and Mark Twain was the guest of honor. Here were two transplanted westerners who knew more about roughing it than ever appeared in a book. As the high-priced food was being served to them, they talked longingly of the old-fashioned cookery of Missouri. The Senator wondered if there was any real corned beef and cabbage left in the world. Mark Twain spoke up in praise of the many old-time dishes, reaching his climax when he declared that, in his opinion, "Bacon would improve the flavor of an angel!"

  Furthermore is it not possible that much of the tremendous liking for Mark Twain grew out of his success in es
tablishing our credit abroad? Any American who can invade Europe and command respectful attention is entitled to triumphal arches when he arrives home. Our dread and fear of foreign criticism are still most acute. Mrs. Trollope and Captain Maryat lacerated our feelings long ago. Dickens came over to have our choicest wild flowers strewn in his pathway and then went home to scourge us until we shrieked with pain. Kipling had fun with us, and for years after that we trembled at his approach. George Bernard Shaw peppers away at long range and the "London Spectator" grows peevish every time it looks out of the window and sees a drove of Cook tourists madly spending their money.

  It is a terrible shock to the simple inlander, who has fed upon Congessional oratory and provincial editorials, when he discovers that in certain European capitals the name "American" is almost a term of reproach. The first-time-over citizen from Spudville or Alfalfa Center indicates his protest by wearing a flag on his coat and inviting those who sit in darkness to comes over and see what kind of trams are run on the Burlington. The lady, whose voice comes from a point directly between the eyes, seeks to correct all the erroneous impressions by going to the table d'hote with fewer clothes and more jewels than any one had reason to expect. These two are not as frequently to be seen as they were twenty years ago but they are still gleefully held up by our critics as being "typical."