HUMOROUS SCRIBBLER

I’ve had a lifelong passion for certain authors, beginning in grade school with Andre Norton, an obscure juvenile Sci-Fi writer. I soon moved on to Heinlein and Asimov. Along the way I learned of Poe and memorized “The Raven.” I learned of Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) He amused me, and I memorized his “Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”

In time I was introduced to the British Author, Bernard Cornwell whose historical descriptions enthralled me. Sadly, I‘ve pretty much given up Sci-Fi but continue to read historical fiction. At the same time, I have moved on to horror and suspense: Stephen King naturally, but also Dean Koontz and Jeffrey Deaver. Nelson DeMille, Lee Child and John Grisham are also my go-to authors.

Today though, I have a yen to dwell on the humorous scribbler, Samuel Clemens.  Not only do I appreciate his writing, but I am drawn to his evolutionary mindset. He long ago, made a deep impression on me. For years I had a large photo of him hanging in the social studies classroom where I taught. The photo depicted him dressed in his recognizable white suit with curly white hair to much and that ever-present stogie dangling from one hand.

He’s on my mind  today because I’ve worked him into my 11th book, Promises Made. At the time I bring him into the story, he is a 31-year-old, acerbic, irreverent, worldly-wise, hard drinking, Washington D.C. secretary to Nevada Senator William Stewart. He is at the same time acting as a correspondent for several of the capital’s newspapers.

The year is 1867, the war is over, slavery is over, and Clemens’ early illusions of the Southern way of life and The Cause are over. At the same time, his writing career is on the verge of exploding onto the world stage. Fresh from his extended tour across the Atlantic, he has reams of notes which he will soon stitch into Innocents Abroad. In a letter sent to his brother he declares, “Am pretty well known now - intend to be better known. Am hobnobbing with these old Generals and Senators and other humbugs for no good purpose.”

For that period in history, Clemens was a liberal-minded jetsetter. Born in a tiny town in Northeastern Missouri, he traveled the length of the Mississippi, much of the mid and far west. He enjoyed San Francisco and his time in Hawaii (then called the Sandwich Islands). He participated in one of, if not the, first vacation cruise during which he visited The Holy land and a good bit of Europe. Later in life he sailed the better part of the British Empire.

Travel, he discovered, dispelled small town prejudices. His vocalizing this makes him a refreshing character in the mid 19th century. I’ve been researching Civil War personalities for years. Many of them are intriguing individuals who boldly spoke out against societal ills, some stridently, sometimes viciously. Few however, offered solutions. Clemens’ solution was simplicity itself – TRAVEL.

Clemens was more complex than people realize. You will from time to time hear of his frequent use of the N word in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He did so because that was a part of period dialect. I do the same but feel it necessary to warn readers that I do it and that I do not condone its use today.

Clemens would have heard the word often. He was reared in a slave-owning family and received spiritual advice from a preacher who insisted slavery was right, righteous and sacred. This affected his allegiance at the start of the Civil War. During the War he spoke of Union Forces invading his state and joined with Confederate militia.

His time in uniform was brief, only two weeks, but during that time he he killed a man or so he admitted in “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed.” His sense of wonder and regret over the incident tug at one’s heartstrings.  War woke up Clemens sensibilities with a thunderclap.

He disdained religion though he found ministers interesting to talk to. He resented the destruction done to the south but welcomed the abolition of the slaves. He disagreed with Congressional Reconstruction policies, yet he became good friends with the radical’s Republican’s leader, Thaddeus Stevens. He advised the impeachment of Andrew Johnson before the incident that led to his actual impeachment. In short order he became a Republican himself and used his acid wit to rail against injustice.

Over time Samuel Clemens became a printer, a riverboat pilot, a miner, a journalist and ultimately, a celebrated author. At one time he thought he would always remain a riverboat pilot. He must have remembered it fondly for it was from his piloting days that he drew his nom de plume - Mark Twain (it means – a depth of two fathoms or 12 feet). Just the same, Clemens was born to be the beloved and humorous scribbler that he became.

Acquaintances swore that Samuel Clemens was a superb entertainer. If the depictions I’ve seen of Mark Twain are accurate, I have to agree. I never did have the pleasure of watching the white-suited, cigar-smoking Hal Holbrook do his imitation in person (I urge you to look up recordings of his act online). I saw him on TV but that’s not the same. I did catch an amateur performance of Clemens on stage in Springfield Illinois. The act revealed the author’s razor-sharp brilliance and his keen insight into human nature.

People say Bob Hope was the king of one-liners. That may be, but I believe Clemens invented the one-liner. Some of his quotes, I hold dear are:

"When in doubt, tell the truth.”

“I was born modest, it didn’t last.”

“Lack of money is the root of all evil”

“God created war so that man would learn geography.”

"All good things arrive unto them that wait and don’t die."

“Giving up smoking is easy … I’ve done it hundreds of times.”

When I smoked, I must have repeated that line at least as many times.

I leave you with two final Mark Twain quotes - On Travel.

"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page"

and

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”

More people need to hear these!
More people need to heed these!