My curiosity in Mark Twain was kindled by the 2002 Ken Burns documentary, “Mark Twain”.It was the amount of requests for details about his time in Redding, following the documentary’s launch that initiated my curiosity in his life. Folks had been shocked to search out out he lived and died in Redding, Connecticut and needed to know extra. In answering questions in regards to the twilight years of Twain’s life, I found not solely that his time in Redding was a big interval in his life, however, that he *lived* an incredible life, interval!This listing beneath is only a style of what I’ve come throughout over the previous eight years; the person was one in every of a form.”I–well I was an exception, you understand–my kind don’t turn up every day. We are very rare. We are a sort of human century plant, and we don’t blossom in everybody’s front yard.”
– Letter from Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) to Olivia Langdon, 09/08/1869Attention-grabbing Mark Twain Details:1. Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. Final perihelion of Halley’s comet, Nov. 10, 1835.”I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet.”
– Mark Twain, a Biography2. Earlier than he was 13 he needed to be rescued from drowning 9 instances — Three instances from the Mississippi and 6 instances from Bear Creek.3. On the very younger age of 18 Twain ran away from home- “My Dear Mother: you’ll doubtless be a little surprised, & somewhat angry when you receive this..” He traveled from Missouri to New York Metropolis to view the World’s Honest. He’d keep in New York and work within the printing business for a spell till shifting on to Philadelphia.4. Earlier than the age of 20, Twain had visited and lived in New York Metropolis, Philadelphia, Washington DC, St. Louis, Muscatine & Keokuk Iowa and Cincinnati!5. Early in his life he did not actually take care of Irish Catholics.6. Twain gave his first public speech at a printers banquet in Keokuk, Iowa in 1856.7. In February of 1857 Twain left Cincinnati for New Orleans with the intent to embark for the Amazon River. He was going to hunt his fortune within the thriving coca commerce. Fortunately, on his means south he met pilot Horace Bixby. Bixby was a steamboat captain and Twain’s childhood dream turned a better precedence than the Amazon enterprise.8. Twain earned his steamboat pilot license in 1859 and labored steadily as a river pilot on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and New Orleans till 1861. The Civil Warfare ended that profession.9. Twain headed West to the Nevada territory in August 1861 together with his brother Orion, who was appointed Secretary of Nevada territory by Abraham Lincoln.10. He adopted the pen identify “Mark Twain,” an outdated riverboat time period which suggests “the line between safe water and dangerous water” in 1863 whereas working for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia Metropolis, Nevada. His first pen identify was “Josh”11. In 1866, Twain traveled to Hawaii writing for the Sacramento Union. When he returned to California, he delivered his first journey expertise associated lecture on the subject.12. From June Eight to November 19, 1867 he was commissioned to report on an tour to the Mediterranean and Holy Land. This journey would result in the journey letters that grow to be his first profitable e book The Innocents Overseas, The New Pilgrims’ Progress.13. Twain loved Baseball & had an excellent understanding of the sport. Mark Twain’s scorecard from baseball recreation between Hartford and Boston is within the assets part.14. Twain wrote continuously. To view his journals Google “Terry Ballard+Twain Journals”
Be sure you try the Google map of Mark Twain’s America on the backside. Very cool!”If you wish to inflict a heartless and malignant punishment upon a young person, pledge him to keep a journal a year.”
-Mark Twain15. The Ghost Hunters visited Mark Twain’s home in Hartford in December 2009. When you missed the Ghost Hunters go to to the Mark Twain Home the video hyperlink of the episode is within the assets.16. The Mark Twain Home & Museum in Hartford, Connecticut maintains a group of 16,000 museum objects and artifacts, together with an archive of greater than 6,000 paperwork and 5,280 photographic pictures.17. In his first Harper’s Month-to-month article they mistakenly credited MacSwain because the writer.”I was a Literary Person, but that was all-a buried one; buried alive.” -Mark Twain, My Debut as a Literary Individual.18. Twain wrote numerous brief tales over the course of his lifetime. The Loss of life of Jean is the final one I am conscious of and it was written in Redding, Connecticut late December 1909.19. Twain thought of himself neither a Republican nor a Democrat:”I had been accustomed to vote for Republicans more frequently than for Democrats, but I was never a Republican and never a Democrat. In the community, I was regarded as a Republican, but I had never so regarded myself.” – Autobiographical dictation, January 24, 190620. Twain was an inventor and held a number of patents. An adjustable garment strap & a historical past memorization recreation are examples. His most profitable invention was a scrap e book.21. Mark Twain’s “Aquarium Club” was not his first group of feminine correspondents. Previous to 1902 he had fashioned “The Juggernaut Club”.”I have built this house (in Redding, CT) largely, indeed almost chiefly, for the comfort & accommodation of the Aquarium. Its members will always be welcome under its roof.”
-Mark Twain22. Mark Twain totally understood life: “What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head and is known to none but himself. All day long, and every day, the mill of his brain is grinding and his thoughts, not those other things are his history….The mass of him is hidden–it and its volcanic fires that toss and boil, and never rest, night nor day.”23. Mark Twain did not have a optimistic view of “big” Authorities:”The mania for giving the Government power to meddle with the private affairs of cities & citizens is likely to cause endless trouble.”
-Mark Twain24. Mark Twain’s 1870 Lecture Tour had a minimum of 49 engagements, the subject – “Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands””Mark Twain is a very good looking man. He is of medium height and moderately slender build, has light brown hair, a reddish brown moustache, regular features and a fresh complexion; and he has a queer way of wrinkling up his nose and half closing his eyes when he speaks. The expression of his face is as calm and imperturbable as that of a sphinx. Looking at him you feel it to be an impossibility that he should ever hurry or be out of temper, and you might suppose him to be incapable of a joke, if it were not for the peculiar twinkle in his merry eyes. His voice is remarkably light and remarkably dry–like some German wines–and it seems to be modulated to only two keys. His style of speaking is unique to the last degree. It is all of a piece with the quality of his humor, and fits him like a glove.”
-Newspaper Assessment of November 30, 1870 Thompsonville, Connecticut tour cease. November 30th is his Birthday, should have been a very good present!25. Attention-grabbing truth about Clara Clemens (Twain’s daughter) in 1909 she requested Rev. Joseph Twichell to omit ‘Obey’ from her marriage vows. 1909! Clara was the one daughter who would marry.26. Twain researched and wrote “Life on the Mississippi” in a single 12 months, 1882-83.27. From 07/1895 to 07/1896 Twain toured the US, Canada, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa…140 engagements!28. Earlier than he started his 1895/96 World Tour Mark Twain was deep in debt.29. Twain’s Brief Story “A Curious Experience” begins:”This is the story which the Major told me, as nearly as I can recall it:– In the winter of 1862-3, I was commandant of Fort Trumbull, at New London, Conn.”There may be now an exhibit at Fort Trumbull the place you may sit and listen to this story.30. Mark Twain lived in Hartford, Connecticut for 20+ years and lived in Redding, Connecticut for two years. Redding is the place he died on April 21st 1910.31. 161 of the unique 340 Redding, Connecticut acres as soon as owned by Mark Twain are open to the general public within the current day. In 1974, eight years of negotiations resulted within the “installment purchase” of Stormfield from then proprietor, Doreen Danks.There are 4 miles of trails off of Fox Run Highway accessible to people who want to hike the Stormfield path system in Redding.67 acres of Twain’s Redding, CT property stay in non-public possession.32. Twain was a giant fan of Bermuda. Elizabeth Wallace revealed “Mark Twain and the Happy Island” in 1913. The e book explores Twain’s many visits to Bermuda.33. Twain and Helen Keller had been shut buddies and he performed an energetic function in her training and life.”Blindness is an exciting business, I tell you; if you don’t believe it get up some dark night on the wrong side of your bed when the house is on fire and try to find the door.”
– Twain quoted by Helen Keller in her e book Midstream34. Twain was a founding member of The Gamers membership in New York Metropolis.35. Twain was a naturalist and enormously loved nature’s magnificence.”The foliage at Stormfield “was heaven and hell and sundown and rainbows and the aurora, all fused into one divine concord, and also you could not take a look at it and maintain the tears again.”
-Twain in Redding Fall 190936. One in every of Twain’s last acts was approving a $6,000 test for the Library Constructing Fund. He devoted the Library within the reminiscence of his daughter Jean in Redding, Connecticut. The Mark Twain Library in Redding, Connecticut is the one library within the World that based, funded and stuffed with books by Mark Twain himself.37. In 1960, Reddingite, Brad Kelly, found that the Russians had been very obsessed with Mark Twain and most of his books and tales had been translated into their language. 1960 was the 50th Anniversary of his passing. Kelly found 11 million copies of Mark Twain works had been translated within the 25 Russian languages. 9(9) of those Russian books are cataloged on the Mark Twain Library in Redding, Connecticut.38. In 1917, Emily Grant Hutchins revealed a e book “Jap Herron,” that she claimed Mark Twain had written from the grave through a Ouija board. “after several messages had been spelled out the pointer of the planchette traced the words ‘Samuel M. [sic] Clemens, Lazy Sam,’ “and the story as printed was then informed.”39. Mark Twain died, April 21, 1910. The Perihelion of Halley’s Comet, was on April 20, 1910. “Now listed here are these two unaccountable freaks; they got here in collectively, they have to exit collectively.”
– Mark Twain, a BiographyNow, I may go on and on with this matter, I are inclined to comply with the Twain logic “to keep on talking until I get the audience cowed.” However I feel I’ve made it very clear that Mark Twain was an incredible man, who led an incredible life that’s actually value exploring.”A median American loves his household. If he has any love left over for another individual, he typically selects Mark Twain.
– Thomas Edison