Talk:Mark Twain

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Move to Langhorn

Let's move the article to Samuel Langhorn Clemens, and redirect there from Mark Twain. --Ed Poor 07:38, 4 December 2002 (UTC)[reply]

I think its best at this place - Mark Twain is the vastly more familiar name... Martin 14:43, 25 April 2003 (UTC)[reply]

I'd like to see it moved to Samuel Clemens... but that's just me. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.118.167.128 (talk • contribs) 17:06, 10 March 2004 (UTC)

Well, Samuel Clemens redirects to this article. But I think far more people know him as "Mark Twain" than by his given name. —Frecklefoot 16:42, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

I vote to move it. It makes move sense to have the article about a person under the person's name. Though, we'd have to move Lewis Carroll, too. Jimp 2Nov05

Link removed

Why was this link removed?

Mark Twain's brief biography and works

I looked at it and thought it was pretty good. —Frecklefoot 17:04, 2 Feb 2004 (UTC)

Box?

Does Twain's picture need to be in that box/table? It takes up a lot of room and it doesn't add any information that's not in the first sentence of the article. Apparently it's some sort of template, but I can't find any discussion of it anywhere else. P. Riis 03:39, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

OK, I found it: it's called Infox_Biography, and the talk page is here. Apparently there was a battle over having it on Charles Darwin and they eventually got rid of it. P. Riis 04:19, 20 Oct 2004 (UTC)

It should be removed from here. It is really horrible! Jooler 03:20, 22 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Bipolar disorder: sure, but not without a reference

I'm quite prepared to believe that Mark Twain had bipolar disorder, but this should not go in the article without a reference. "Many attribute some of Twain’s extraordinary abilities" just isn't good enough. The article has to say who makes this attribution and which abilities are attributed to the disorder. Accordingly, I'm reverting the article until someone can give a proper reference. See Wikipedia:Cite your sources [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 15:02, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Good call. I suspect it came from Kay Redfield Jamison's Touched by Fire. She has an appendix in the book in which she lists a large group of people who she suspects to have suffered from "Probable Cyclothymia, Major Depression, or Manic-Depressive Illness" which includes Twain. It's completely unwarranted to go from that to the bald statment "Mark Twain had Bipolar Disorder." Also, this particular user is pasting the same biolerplate into a long list of biographies, without even changing the pronoun gender for females. P. RIIS 15:28, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Yeah, in fact I own a copy of Touched by Fire, but it's not handy at this instant. I'd be perfectly happy with a sentence saying "Kay Redfield Jamison includes Mark Twain on a list of ... " whatever. And she and Touched by Fire are IMHO more than notable enough to warrant articles if we haven't got them already... let's see whether I get red links. But even to go from "Kay Redfield Jamison attributes" to "many attribute" is unjustified. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith (talk)]] 16:16, 28 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Do we know if he was a Republican or a Democrat? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 64.12.117.8 (talk • contribs) 13:36, 21 November 2004 (UTC)

Twain and the Transcendentalists

Does anyone have any information on what Twain's relationship was to the Transcendentalists? Did he know any of them personally? Did he agree with their views? Edited: The Individual 03/V/05

                      ask what........
  someone please check in the early life section of the page and fix this!! eewww

Twain mocked the Transcendentalists found it on metacrawler.com type in "Transcendentalists+Mark Twain" first one...he made a long speech and mocked all of them. have fun Edited: AT 12/2/05

Mormon Insult(?)

I have heard of a story where Mark Twain called Mormon woman butch. Upon doing this, Brigham Young kicked him out of Utah. Does anyone know if there is truth to this, as it might make an interesting addition to his biography. --Mike 22:51, 16 August 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Twain's book Roughing It contains the story of his visit to Salt Lake City and meeting Brigham Young. I don't recall that the story you relate was in the book, but you might be interested in its other observations. --Blainster 18:47, 28 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

In Roughing It, Twain actually speaks highly of Brigham Young, from the excerpts I've read. The Jade Knight 09:12, 9 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Then you need to read the book. Twain directs his typical sarcasm at Young, and not at all appreciative. --Blainster 20:39, 20 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Death of daughter ?

Olivia Susan Clemens' death of meningitis apparently happened in Hartford in 1896, and another daughter died by drowning during an epileptic attack (here) in 1909. This addition should be sourced to research that questions such accounts. Schissel-nonLop! 16:29, 19 December 2005 (UTC)[reply]

WTF?

This line is quite confusing:

"Sam doesn't know that this could change his life forever. You see, he was a fraud. Noone ever believed his works because he hurt so many people with them."

--Davecampbell 23:13, 4 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Life on the Mississippi

Someone (24.51.105.193) just changed "Life on the Mississippi" from being non-fiction to being fiction (reference [1]). Is this an accurate change? I wasn't able to find a clear indication online, but it seemed people would sometimes put "non-fiction" in quotes to emphasize that Twain embellished. I don't know enough of the author to have an opinion here, but wanted to point it out for discussion and reversion if necessary. --Hansnesse 03:18, 13 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The point ought to be noted. It purports to be an autobiographical memoir, but, like Jack London's John Barleycorn is obviously the work of a raconteur and it seems to me that any sensible reader understands that it is embellished and contains "stretchers." Dpbsmith (talk) 13:32, 23 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Library lists it as nonfiction in five categories. Author Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 Title Life on the Mississippi / by Mark Twain Imprint New York : Harper, c1883 LOCATION CALL NUMBER STATUS North Branch 917.7 T911Lr CHECK SHELF Descript vi, 526 p. : ill. ; 21 cm Note Originally published: New York, Houghton & Co., 1874 Subject Mississippi River Valley -- Social life and customs Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 -- Travel -- Mississippi River Valley Twain, Mark, 1835-1910 -- Homes and haunts -- Mississippi River Valley Mississippi River -- Description and travel skywriter 00:55, 10 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sieur Louis de Conte

Did Mark Twain use this pseudonym for anything other than his fictional biography of Joan of Arc? Louis de Conte was the actual name of one of her associates. Twain's carefully researched novel tells the story from de Conte's point of view under the conceit of its being his memoirs. This seems too exceptional for an introductory statement about the Mark Twain pen name unless Clemens wrote other works under the name de Conte. Durova 11:33, 7 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Lies, damned lies, and statistics

Twain did not coin this, he merely popularised it in America. See Lies, damned lies, and statistics. I've removed it. JackofOz 12:26, 22 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Often thought

But it is often thought that the name actually came from his wilder days in the West, where he would buy two drinks and tell the bartender to "mark twain" on his tab. Do we know who often thinks this? It would be nice to cite at least one of these people. Mark ^{your words} 19:40, 9 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Reverted vandalism

Reverted some vandalism (nonsensical ha ah substituted for one section, and a part saying "h e was sooo stupid" or something. Furby100 00:50, 12 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that, but I would submit to you that it is unecessarily time consuming to document each and every vandal on the discussion page. These pages would become huge (more so then they are now...) if that were a requirement. --Easter Monkey 06:49, 12 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Chapters from my Autobiography

Please consider adding the following to the Bibliography section:

(1906-1907) Chapters from my Autobiography (published in the North American Review, v. 183-186)

See also my note here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Mark_Twain%27s_Autobiography thistlechick 04:34, 18 March 2006

Haley's Comet

I don't know where to put it, but someone should add the fact that he was born on the day that Haleys Comet passed over Earth, promised that he wouldn't die until he saw it again, and then died the day after it passed over Earth again. Just thought that was a bit of important information that was left out. Tingle

Quotes

For some reason I feel that the quotes section of this would be better replaced with a link explaining that he was well known for many quotations and providing a link to his WikiQuote page. Does anyone agree or am I just insane? Matt F 03:53, 14 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

====I say leave the quotes! I came to this page purely to read some Mark Twain quotes. Were you to remove them, I would find the page not nearly as useful! I say they stay! - Anonymous

link

Hi, I would like to add an external link to the World of Biography entry, probably the most famous portal of biography to this article. Does anybody have any objections?

please do not add this to the article, and please read the incident report before giving the go-ahead. This is spam and not link-worthy under WP:EL; the articles contain many distortions, lack citations, and contain nothing that wouldn't fit directly in the wiki article. a link to worldofbiography has been placed on over 70 talk pages by User:Jameswatt. thanks. --He:ah? 20:57, 15 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

First Book

My Webster's Biographical Dictionary lists Mark Twain's first sucessful book as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and other Sketches, but 1867–1880: First book and family implies that his first book was "The Innocents Abroad". (The bibliography lists Frog first, but the text doesn't even mention it.) This should be fixed...? It confused me for a moment, because my timeline for a Mark Twain school project and the Bibliography list Frog first, but 1867–1880: First book and family didn't. EDIT: Also, this applies to the Roughing it out West section-- "Clemens' experiences in the West contributed significantly to his formation as a writer, and became the basis of his second book, Roughing It." would have to be edited to "...became the basis of his third book..." (But since I'm a noob, I don't want to do this on my own, and probably mess up. ^^;;) Alanahikarichan 19:02, 17 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Add Smithsonian link?

Hello! I am a writer for the Smithsonian's Center for Education, which publishes _Smithsonian in Your Classroom_, a magazine for teachers. An online version of a recent issue titled "Portraits, Visual and Written" is available for free download at this address:

http://www.smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/portraits/index.html

Mark Twain and Louisa May Alcott keep uneasy company as the focus of this issue. Students compare visual images of the authors with written self-portraits. In one lesson, they compare Twain's 1906 explanation of his unconventional white suit with the ending of "Tom Sawyer," in which Huck has literally cast off the clothing of convention.

If you think the Wikipedia audience would find this valuable, I wish to invite you to include it as an external link. We would be most grateful.

Thank you so much for your attention. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 160.111.254.11 (talk • contribs) 10:24, 20 April 2006 (UTC).[reply]

Redundant entry

Pen names: 'Clemens usually maintained that his primary pen name, "Mark Twain," came from his years on the riverboat, where two fathoms (12 ft, approximately 3.7 m) or "safe water" was measured on the sounding line and marked by calling "mark twain."' Mark Twain Constant: 'Samuel Clemens's pen name, "Mark Twain," is the phrase Mississippi boatmen used to signify two fathoms (3.6 meters) of water, the depth needed for a boat's safe passage.' (Actually, Mark Twain Constant seems entirely useless and pointless-- couldn't the information be put into more specific categories? And it also seems oppinionated, to me.) Alanahikarichan 13:28, 29 April 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agree. Tex 18:41, 1 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Missouri's succession

The actual Missouri government did succeed from the Union, but the Union replaced the elected legislature and governor with loyalists. The statement "Missouri, although a slave state and considered by many to be part of the South, declined to join the Confederacy and remained loyal to the Union" is not really true. Although the debate about this doesn't really belong on an article about Mark Twain. See Missouri Secession.