Talk:Mark Twain

Later Life & Death Addition

Note: Heidelberg, where Twain stayed for 3 months during his 2nd visit to europe, is missing completely in this wiki!

Mark Twain arrived in Heidelberg, Germany, May 6th 1878, and stayed for 3 months. His biographer Justin Kaplan writes that Twain knew that Heidelberg derived from "Heidelbeerenberg", english: "Huckleberry Mountain", which may explain his extended stay. Werner Pieper writes that nobody really knows in the latest "Mark Twain's Guide to Heidelberg" , "what made Mark Twain stay in Heidelberg for such a long time. Maybe he was prompted by old dreams from the times he was passing Heidelberg, Mississippi, while working on the steamships? Did he plan to stay here or did he and his family just fall in love with this city?". Twain loved to walk the path from his favorite hotel, the Schloss Hotel (no longer in business) to the summit of the Königstuhl mountain, english: "the King's Chair". Twain rented a studio in an Inn on the top of that mountain. The mountain top view south-west into the rhine valley extends for up to 15 to 20 miles on good days. The river Neckar leads into the river Rhine 20km westward, the city of Mannheim is home of that river delta. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.219.67.137 (talk) 01:10, 23 January 2009 (UTC)

Legacy

It should be noted in this section that he, along with with Albert Bigelow Paine, helped start a library in Redding, Connecticut. This library bears his name as well as holds some of Twain's original collection. Here is a link to the library's website (and more specifically, the history of the library):

http://marktwainlibrary.org/whowe/whowe_frm.html

Live4it (talk) 06:02, 28 January 2009 (UTC)

Missouri / Tennessee ?

It says that he was "born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835 to a Tennessee country merchant". Am I just missing something or does that strike other people as unclear? hannah.joy. (talk) 01:22, 3 February 2009 (UTC)

Quite clear to me. If I said I was born in Los Angeles to a Korean father, would you understand what is being said? I interpret the above to mean Twain was born a Missourian but his parent was from Tennessee.(smjwalsh (talk) 14:20, 6 February 2009 (UTC))

Halley's Comet

It says that Twain's brother, came around the time of Halley's comet in "Early Years". In the "Later Years and Death" section, Clemens is quoted: "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835." Which one came around Halley's Comet? And why is that so important? hannah.JOY. (talk) 01:06, 6 February 2009 (UTC)

I agree that it is/was ambiguous, so replaced "He" with "Twain". As it read the masculine second person singular pronoun could be read to refer to Twain's brother, as grammar custom would dictate. I'm not sure it is important, but Twain himself saw it as significant.(smjwalsh (talk) 14:27, 6 February 2009 (UTC))

Twain's Neutrality in the Civil War

Twain personally bore arms during the American Civil War and wrote about it. Isn't this worth mentioning?

128.239.177.124 (talk) 22:35, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

ender1990@gmail.com

The sketch is humorous in nature. No evidence of Twain bearing arms for the South has ever turned up. He also wrote about talking with the ghost of the Cardiff Giant. Collect (talk) 22:52, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Paul O'Neill a direct descendant?

He claims to be, but it's doubtful. Officially, Clemens only had one grandchild, Nina, and she died childless. So unless he is descended from an unknown, illegitimate child of Clemens', he cannot be a direct descendant. It looks like an unsubstantiated claim by O'Neill himself. I plan to change it accordingly soon unless someone objects. Bigmac31 (talk) 17:44, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

You are correct, and I spared you the trouble. DavidOaks (talk) 03:19, 5 March 2009 (UTC)

It was added again and I checked it out fairly thoroughly then removed it. If anybody is interested here is Nina's obitiuary] I'll also change it at Paul O'Neil. They do have 1 very vague baseball reference there, but it looks like a joke, at at least for literary purposes, an unreliable source. Smallbones (talk) 17:09, 27 May 2009 (UTC)

OK that's fine. I didn't see this discussion before. Arnabdas (talk) 18:58, 9 June 2009 (UTC)

Publication date of Is Shakespeare Dead?

Twain article says 1907; book article says 1909. Which is correct and can we have a citation? Softlavender (talk) 02:38, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

The listed first edition from HArper was issued in April 1909. Collect (talk) 10:47, 16 March 2009 (UTC)

Mark Twain Is Da Best

Saying point-blank that Mark Twain is the possessor of keen wit and incisive satire seems to me to be a shameless point of view... Even if everyone else thinks it's true, it needs quotation - as far as I'm aware. Livingston C. Rael (talk) 20:24, 18 March 2009 (UTC)

Twain's Short Essay "Concerning the Jews"

CONCERNING THE JEWS ... The Essay, by Mark Twain

"If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvellous fight in the world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?" 194.90.149.81 (talk) 08:40, 20 March 2009 (UTC)HF

I just read the above essay, and it is interesting reading. The passage inserted above, however, does not on its own fairly portray the contents of the essay - in which Mr. Twain argues that anti-semitism is an economic rather than religious-based discrimination. He argues that anti-Semitism pre-dates Christianity, and discusses the anti-semitism that likely resulted from the Joseph-era economic goings-on in Egypt. It might make sense to include a reference or link to this essay in the main article, but I would suggest against including the full quote above. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.69.135.65 (talk) 20:45, 30 August 2009 (UTC)

Women's Rights

Twain was a fierce advocate of women's rights in addition to the rights of blacks. His 1901 "Votes for Women" speech is one of the most famous in history. SocialActivismNow (talk) 04:27, 22 March 2009 (UTC)

Mark Twain wrote some stuff lke.....books about stuff.....and like other stuff....oh yeah...and washing machines....!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.99.86.2 (talk) 19:41, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

He is a great writter —Preceding unsigned comment added by 218.58.59.73 (talk) 03:56, 25 April 2009 (UTC)

Who is Mark Twain?

{{editsemiprotected}}

Could someone who has access to edit this page (I'm new to wikipedia, and since it's semiprotected, I can't add it myself) please add the book Who Is Mark Twain? to Twain's bibliography?

The book is a collection of 24 previously unpublished pieces by Mark Twain and compiled by the Mark Twain Foundation. Here is the official website for the book: http://theharperstudio.com/authorsandbooks/marktwain/

Thank you!

--Kratlee (talk) 16:52, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

 Done By the way, please don't use templates as section names. Celestra (talk) 18:21, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for editing the post and my comment! Also, is it possible to change the publisher from HarperStudios to HarperStudio (without the last s)?

--Kratlee (talk) 18:38, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

Your welcome. Sorry about the typo. Cheers, Celestra (talk) 02:18, 8 May 2009 (UTC)

One more book for me to buy ... there are literally thousands of short pieces still unpublished IIRC. Collect (talk) 18:53, 6 May 2009 (UTC)

A link to download 34 fac-similés

Hi. I have made a big archive (splitted in two parts) with some files from Internet Archive. There is more than 30 original editions of Mark Twain's works. I think this could be helpful and interesting for some people, but the article is semi-protected. Of course, all files are in domain public. Thanks to add this link :

http://rapidshare.com/users/68U16W

Joseph Prunier (talk) 21:32, 7 June 2009 (UTC)

Terribly disorganized

The biography section is bad, bad, bad. It mentions him paying off his debts just in passing. The enormity of the debts he incurred isn't even hinted at until the third section. I'm going to be merging the bio, finances, and friendship sections within the next few days, so if you have any objections or comments, speak up now. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:05, 11 June 2009 (UTC)

Problems with Mysterious Stranger

I mentioned these problems earlier, but as no one responded or changed the article (its semi protected so I can't), I thought I would restate them (they would be easy to remedy):

I think the two mentions of the Mysterious Stranger could be improved by removing the descriptive clauses attached to them. In the first instance--"Of these works, The Mysterious Stranger, which places the presence of Satan, also known as “No. 44,” in various situations where the moral sense of humankind is absent, is perhaps the best known."-- the clauses describing the book are confusing in their vagueness and clumsiness. But more importantly, saying that Satan exists "in various situations where the moral sense of humankind is absent" is not quite true. For one, it leads to reader to believe that this is THE Satan, and not his nephew (or 44 depending on the version, which is a whole other can of worms), and more importantly in the novel it is not the absence of "moral sense" that is the problem, it is the presence. That is, throughout the work, Satan discusses the problematic nature of morality by demonstrating how its presence leads to undesirable consequences. In the Second instance--"The anti-religious The Mysterious Stranger was published in 1916, although there is some scholarly debate as to whether Twain actually wrote the most familiar version of this story"--the claim that scholars debate whether or not Twain wrote the piece, is false, though it is clear what the author meant to say. The debate does not concern whether or not he wrote the material, but how it was edited from the three manuscripts. No one doubts he wrote the material; it is merely a question of the nature of the editing process. This would be a trivial concern, except that as the sentence reads (within the context of the paragraph on his religious views) it implies that the doubt of authorship might counteract the work's anti-religious contents, that such contents are from another source. That is not true; and, moreover, such anti-religious sentiments are consistent with much of his work, especially his later writings.

So, I think those two sentences should be changed. It would not be hard to do; simply remove the descriptive clauses and the sentences work fine. I am not allowed to do so as the page is semi-protected. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.98.182.64 (talk) 22:02, 17 July 2009 (UTC)

International Socialist Review

This article is peppered with citations from the International Socialist Review. This source is undeniably biased, and has no rights to be included in a unbiased biography. I believe all sentences with references to this source be re-referenced, or if no other source can be found, deleted completely. --Daj12192 (talk) 17:33, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

Perhaps you might spend some time pointing out reliable sources which confirm your opinion Tedickey (talk) 18:55, 19 July 2009 (UTC)

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

Snopes.com says this clever comment is incorrectly attributed to Mark Twain.

http://www.snopes.com/quotes/twain.asp

The same page on snopes mentions quite a few other famous quotations falsely attributed to Clemens/Twain

```` —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.127.233.153 (talk) 04:22, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

Looks like the attribution was greatly exaggerated. It's gone. Clarityfiend (talk) 04:43, 18 August 2009 (UTC)

mark twain was a big insporation to all who bread his books and novals. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 170.185.198.19 (talk) 13:08, 19 August 2009 (UTC)

Love of Science and Technology

This section mentions that he invented a form of steam engine and a bed clamp for infants. Is there a source for this? Gampgamp (talk) 02:19, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

Using my way-back machine, in January 18, 2007, what it said was, "Although Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, he squandered much of it through bad investments, mostly through new inventions. These included the bed clamp for infants, a new type of steam engine that he had to sell for scrap, the kaolatype (a machine designed to engrave printing plates), the Paige typesetting machine..." Somewhere along the line, the meaning apparently got mangled. Clarityfiend (talk) 05:45, 12 September 2009 (UTC)

tilted

the article is tilted to make twain look like an atheist.

Someone needs to fix this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tarlias (talk • contribs) 18:21, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Josh Billings

Those interested in literature of this period & type would do good to contribute to the Josh Billings article (being nearly as famous as Twain at the time), it could use much addition. 98.246.62.216 (talk) 04:19, 14 November 2009 (UTC)