Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain an American Treasure.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),better known by the pen name Mark Twain,
was an American author and humorist.
Samuel Clemons at the age of 36 (I swear I looked a lot like him in my mid 30s. Unfortunately for me all or at least most other similarities ended there).
Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse but evolved into a grim, almost profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism.
Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language. Many of Twain's works have been suppressed at times for various reasons. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the so called N word which was a common term used when the book was written.
While Twain credited Henry Rogers, a Standard Oil executive, with saving him from financial ruin, their close friendship in their later years was mutually beneficial. Twain lost three of his four children and his beloved wife, and the Rogers family increasingly became a surrogate family for him. He became a frequent guest at their townhouse in New York City,
their 48-room summer home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and aboard their steam yacht, the Kanawha.
The two men introduced each other to their acquaintances. Twain was an admirer of the remarkable deafblind girl Helen Keller.
He first met Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan at a party in the home of Laurence Hutton in New York City in the winter of 1894.
Twain introduced them to Rogers, who, with his wife, paid for Keller's education at Radcliffe College.
It was Twain who is credited with labeling Sullivan, Keller's governess and companion, a "miracle worker." His choice of words later became inspiration for the title of William Gibson's play and film adaptation, The Miracle Worker.
Twain also introduced Rogers to journalist Ida M. Tarbell, who interviewed the robber baron for a muckraking expose that led indirectly to the break-up of the Standard Oil Trust.
On cruises aboard the Kanawha, Twain and Rogers were joined at frequent
intervals by Booker T. Washington, the famed former slave who had become a leading educator.
Twain was an adamant supporter of abolition and emancipation, even going so far to say “Lincoln's Proclamation ...not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also.” He argued that non-whites did not receive justice in the United States, once saying “I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature....but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him.”
He paid for at least one black person to attend Yale University Law School and for another black person to attend a southern university to become a minister.
Mark Twain was a staunch supporter of women's rights and an active campaigner for women's suffrage. His "Votes for Women" speech, in which he pressed for the granting of voting rights to women, is considered one of the most famous in history.
Twain was critical of organized religion and certain elements of Christianity through most of his later life.
In 1901 Twain was opposed to the actions of missionary Dr. William Scott Ament (1851–1909) as a consequence of reports that Dr. William Scott Ament and other missionaries collected indemnities from Chinese subjects in the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising of 1900.
Twain's response to hearing of Ament's methods was published in the North American Review in February 1901:
To the Person Sitting in Darkness', and deals with examples of imperialism in China, South Africa, and with the U.S. occupation of the Philippines.
A subsequent article, "To My Missionary Critics" published in The North American Review in April 1901, unapologetically continues his attack, but with the focus shifted from Ament to his missionary superiors, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Twain wrote, for example, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so," and "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."
After his death, Twain's family suppressed some of his work which was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, notably Letters from the Earth, which was not published until his daughter Clara reversed her position in 1962 in response to Soviet propaganda about the withholding.
The anti-religious The Mysterious Stranger was published in 1916, though there is some scholarly debate as to whether Twain actually wrote the most familiar version of this story.
Little Bessie, a story ridiculing Christianity, was first published in the 1972 collection Mark Twain's Fables of Man.
Twain's funeral was at the "Old Brick" Presbyterian Church in New York. He also donated funds to build a Presbyterian Church in Nevada.
Twain was a Freemason.He belonged to Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F.&A.M., based in St. Louis. He was initiated an Entered apprentice on May 22, 1861, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on June 12, and raised to the degree of Master Mason on July 10th.
Twain's legacy lives on today as his namesakes continue to multiply. Several schools are named after him, including Mark Twain Elementary School in Houston, Texas, which has a statue of Twain sitting on a bench, and Mark Twain Intermediate School in New York.
There are several schools named Mark Twain Middle School in different states, as well as Samuel Clemens High School in Schertz, near San Antonio, Texas.
There are also other structures, such as the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge.
Mark Twain Village is a United States Army installation located in the Südstadt district of Heidelberg, Germany. It is one of two American bases in the United States Army Garrison Heidelberg that house American soldiers and their families (The other being Patrick Henry Village).
Awards in his name proliferate. In 1998, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts created the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded annually. The Mark Twain Award is an award given annually to a book for children in grades four through eight by the Missouri Association of School Librarians.
Stetson University in DeLand, Florida sponsors the Mark Twain Young Authors' Workshop each summer in collaboration with the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal. The program is open to young authors in grades five through eight.
The museum sponsors the Mark Twain Creative Teaching Award.
There is a lot more I could add about the amazing life of Samuel Clemens but I don't think many will find the time to read what I have already posted.
Information from Wikipedia and other Mark Twain websites.
wil.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),better known by the pen name Mark Twain,
was an American author and humorist.
Samuel Clemons at the age of 36 (I swear I looked a lot like him in my mid 30s. Unfortunately for me all or at least most other similarities ended there).
Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse but evolved into a grim, almost profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism.
Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language. Many of Twain's works have been suppressed at times for various reasons. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the so called N word which was a common term used when the book was written.
While Twain credited Henry Rogers, a Standard Oil executive, with saving him from financial ruin, their close friendship in their later years was mutually beneficial. Twain lost three of his four children and his beloved wife, and the Rogers family increasingly became a surrogate family for him. He became a frequent guest at their townhouse in New York City,
their 48-room summer home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and aboard their steam yacht, the Kanawha.
The two men introduced each other to their acquaintances. Twain was an admirer of the remarkable deafblind girl Helen Keller.
He first met Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan at a party in the home of Laurence Hutton in New York City in the winter of 1894.
Twain introduced them to Rogers, who, with his wife, paid for Keller's education at Radcliffe College.
It was Twain who is credited with labeling Sullivan, Keller's governess and companion, a "miracle worker." His choice of words later became inspiration for the title of William Gibson's play and film adaptation, The Miracle Worker.
Twain also introduced Rogers to journalist Ida M. Tarbell, who interviewed the robber baron for a muckraking expose that led indirectly to the break-up of the Standard Oil Trust.
On cruises aboard the Kanawha, Twain and Rogers were joined at frequent
intervals by Booker T. Washington, the famed former slave who had become a leading educator.
Twain was an adamant supporter of abolition and emancipation, even going so far to say “Lincoln's Proclamation ...not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also.” He argued that non-whites did not receive justice in the United States, once saying “I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature....but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him.”
He paid for at least one black person to attend Yale University Law School and for another black person to attend a southern university to become a minister.
Mark Twain was a staunch supporter of women's rights and an active campaigner for women's suffrage. His "Votes for Women" speech, in which he pressed for the granting of voting rights to women, is considered one of the most famous in history.
Twain was critical of organized religion and certain elements of Christianity through most of his later life.
In 1901 Twain was opposed to the actions of missionary Dr. William Scott Ament (1851–1909) as a consequence of reports that Dr. William Scott Ament and other missionaries collected indemnities from Chinese subjects in the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising of 1900.
Twain's response to hearing of Ament's methods was published in the North American Review in February 1901:
To the Person Sitting in Darkness', and deals with examples of imperialism in China, South Africa, and with the U.S. occupation of the Philippines.
A subsequent article, "To My Missionary Critics" published in The North American Review in April 1901, unapologetically continues his attack, but with the focus shifted from Ament to his missionary superiors, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.
Twain wrote, for example, "Faith is believing what you know ain't so," and "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."
After his death, Twain's family suppressed some of his work which was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, notably Letters from the Earth, which was not published until his daughter Clara reversed her position in 1962 in response to Soviet propaganda about the withholding.
The anti-religious The Mysterious Stranger was published in 1916, though there is some scholarly debate as to whether Twain actually wrote the most familiar version of this story.
Little Bessie, a story ridiculing Christianity, was first published in the 1972 collection Mark Twain's Fables of Man.
Twain's funeral was at the "Old Brick" Presbyterian Church in New York. He also donated funds to build a Presbyterian Church in Nevada.
Twain was a Freemason.He belonged to Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F.&A.M., based in St. Louis. He was initiated an Entered apprentice on May 22, 1861, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on June 12, and raised to the degree of Master Mason on July 10th.
Twain's legacy lives on today as his namesakes continue to multiply. Several schools are named after him, including Mark Twain Elementary School in Houston, Texas, which has a statue of Twain sitting on a bench, and Mark Twain Intermediate School in New York.
There are several schools named Mark Twain Middle School in different states, as well as Samuel Clemens High School in Schertz, near San Antonio, Texas.
There are also other structures, such as the Mark Twain Memorial Bridge.
Mark Twain Village is a United States Army installation located in the Südstadt district of Heidelberg, Germany. It is one of two American bases in the United States Army Garrison Heidelberg that house American soldiers and their families (The other being Patrick Henry Village).
Awards in his name proliferate. In 1998, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts created the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, awarded annually. The Mark Twain Award is an award given annually to a book for children in grades four through eight by the Missouri Association of School Librarians.
Stetson University in DeLand, Florida sponsors the Mark Twain Young Authors' Workshop each summer in collaboration with the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal. The program is open to young authors in grades five through eight.
The museum sponsors the Mark Twain Creative Teaching Award.
There is a lot more I could add about the amazing life of Samuel Clemens but I don't think many will find the time to read what I have already posted.
Information from Wikipedia and other Mark Twain websites.
wil.
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charles nelson reilly used to do a one man show talking about his
life, career, and fellow actors. he talked about his original acting
class in new york where many actors went on to be famous.
one specifically he talks about a young hal holbrook going to state
fairs ( i would guess back in the mid-50's) with a large paper
bag full of props and makeup so he could imitate mark twain
for the locals. well hal holbrook took that one idea and turned
it into a highly successful career with a critically acclaimed man show
about mark twain in addition to television and touring shows that have
spanned decades. if you want to learn about mark twain while being
highly entertained you should get a copy of this video.
definitely get a video of hal holbrook
life, career, and fellow actors. he talked about his original acting
class in new york where many actors went on to be famous.
one specifically he talks about a young hal holbrook going to state
fairs ( i would guess back in the mid-50's) with a large paper
bag full of props and makeup so he could imitate mark twain
for the locals. well hal holbrook took that one idea and turned
it into a highly successful career with a critically acclaimed man show
about mark twain in addition to television and touring shows that have
spanned decades. if you want to learn about mark twain while being
highly entertained you should get a copy of this video.
definitely get a video of hal holbrook
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Mark Twain Tonight available on Amazon (used around $5)
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Twain-Tonight-VHS-Holbrook/dp/B00000IPGJ
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Twain-Tonight-VHS-Holbrook/dp/B00000IPGJ
