EH 336 | Emily Hunt

1 quote from biography in Norton p. 118-121 2 For more information on Twain and summaries of his major works, see https://www.marktwainmuseum.org/ *published posthumously

Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) was born in Florida, Missouri, but grew up in

the town of Hannibal, along the Mississippi River. His father, a justice of the peace

turned storekeeper, died when Twain was twelve, leaving him to support himself and his

family. Twain was apprenticed to a printer, but eventually went to work in his brother’s

print shop. In 1853, he left his brother’s shop and began to travel, first working as a

travelling printer and then in 1856, as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River until the

outbreak of the Civil War. After a brief stint in a Confederate militia unit, Twain headed

west as a prospector and freelance writer. In the West, Twain worked for several

newspapers, taking the pen name Mark Twain, a term indicating the depth of water,

from his days on the Mississippi River. During these years, he refined his signature

irreverent, colloquial style. Most of Twain’s work during this time was a satirical take on

his travels. Twain’s books were sold via subscription, by door-to-door salespeople, and

his “shrewd understanding of the publishing industry, including the importance of lining up first-rate illustrators, helped

establish him as a popular author,”1 although his works were not reviewed by the established literary magazines of the

time. In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon, the daughter of a wealthy coal merchant, launching Twain into high

society, which was at odds with his unorthodox ideas and rough, folksy demeanor. During this time, Twain wrote and

published several books based on his childhood in Hannibal. While portraying the joy and innocence of childhood, he

also took on themes of racism and violence. Twain’s work, “established the vernacular’s capacity to result in high art,”1

and provide a scathing critique of American values. However, Twain’s personal life began to fall apart: a series of bad

investments led to bankruptcy during the panic of 1893, forcing him to go on a speaking tour to generate income for his

family. His oldest daughter, Susy, died of meningitis while he was away, and his youngest daughter was diagnosed with

epilepsy. Meanwhile, his wife began a decline into permanent invalidism and his own health began to fail. Twain’s

writing from this time reflects a growing dark worldview and disillusionment with everything from organized religion to

capitalism and colonialism. Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910. His middle daughter Clara, his only surviving family

member, prevented some of his later works from being published due to their controversial subject matter. Mark Twain

is still famous as one of America’s greatest authors and humorists, with a cynical humor that continues to be loved

today.

MAJOR WORKS 2

Fiction The Gilded Age [1873]

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [1876]

The Prince and the Pauper [1881]

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [1884]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court [1889]

The American Claimant [1892]

The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson [1894]

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc [1896]

The Mysterious Stranger [1916]*

Nonfiction The Innocents Abroad [1869]

Roughing It [1872]

Life on the Mississippi [1883]

Short Stories “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” [1865]

“The Private History of a Campaign that Failed” [1885]

“Extracts from Adam’s Diary” [1893]

“The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg” [1900]

“The Californian’s Tale” [1902]

“Eve’s Diary” [1905]

Essays “Taming the Bicycle” [written 1884, unpublished]

“Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences” [1895]

“The War Prayer” [1916]* (contains poem O Lord, Our Father)

Letters from the Earth [1962]*

Plays Is He Dead? [written 1898, published 2003]*

CRITICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Lee, Judith Yaross. “Brand Management: Samuel Clemens, Trademarks, and the Mark Twain Enterprise.” Mark Twain and Economy,

special issue of American Literary Realism, vol. 47, no. 1, 2014, pp. 27-54., doi: 10.5406/amerlitereal.47.1.0027.

Levy, Indra. “’Comedy’ Can Be Deadly: Or, How Mark Twain Killed Hara Hōitsuan.” Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 37, no. 2, 2011,

pp. 325-349., doi: 10.1353/jjs.2011.0066.

Lipoma, Lori. “Deconstructing the Devil: Satan Comedy in Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth, and Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s

South Park.” Studies in American Humor, vol. 3, no. 15, 2007, pp. 45-73.

Lund, Roger D. “Philosophic Drollery in Letters from the Earth.” Mark Twain Annual, vol. 4, 2006, pp. 105-126.

Newman, Andrew, and Brandi So. “ʻIt Couldn’t Be Robbery to Steal That: Artistic Appropriation and Twain’s ‘Jumping Frog’.” College

Literature, vol. 42, no. 3, 2015, pp. 396-419., doi: 10.1353/lit.2015.0026.

Peyser, Thomas. “Mark Twain, Immigration, and the American Narrative.” English Literary History, vol. 79, no. 4, 2012, pp. 1013-

1037.

Reeb, Tyler. “Playing Games and ‘Making’ a Novel: Mark Twain and Game Theory in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Mark Twain

Annual, vol. 7, 2009, pp. 97-116.

Rohrkemper, John. “Mark the Clothes: Mark Twain and Clothing as a Social Signifier.” Fashion in Midwestern Fiction, special issue of

Midwestern Miscellany, vol. 42, 2014, pp. 9-19.

Salvant, Shawn. “Mark Twain and the Nature of Twins.” Nineteenth-Century Literature, vol. 67, no. 3, 2012, pp. 366-396., doi:

10.1525/ncl.2012.67.3.366.

Tally, Robert T., Jr. “Bleeping Mark Twain? Censorship, Huckleberry Finn, and the Functions of Literature.” Teaching American

Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice, vol. 6, no. 1, 2013, pp. 97-108.

Tharp, Angela, and David E. E. Sloane. “An Analysis of Mark Twain’s Use of Racial Terms When Describing African Americans.” Mark

Twain Annual, vol. 12, 2014, pp. 83-93., doi: 10.5325/marktwaij.12.1.0083.

Summary of Roger D. Lund’s “Philosophic Drollery in Letters from the Earth” in The Mark Twain Annual (2006)

In “Philosophic Drollery in Letters from the Earth,” Lund argues that Mark Twain uses an Enlightenment era form

of rhetoric, known as “philosophic drollery” to mock religious orthodoxy in a way that “[does] maximum damage to

religion with minimum danger to the author.” Lund states that the use of “epigram, innuendo, ridicule, parody and

burlesque” to challenge accepted religious beliefs has a history in Europe, and that Twain adapts this tradition for his

purpose of skewering America’s religious practices. Twain’s rhetorical strategies are not an invention of American

literature but add to the canon of irreverent and heretical humor in British literary tradition. Twain’s Letters from the

Earth follows in the footsteps of Jonathan Swift, Voltaire, and Thomas Paine. Twain is known to have read Age of Reason

while working on a Mississippi riverboat, and Paine’s influence is seen throughout Letters from the Earth. Both Twain

and Paine require readers to read between the lines to understand their sarcastic critiques. This was necessary to avoid

prosecution under the blasphemy laws of the time. Lund also draws comparisons to Voltaire, stating that Voltaire and

Twain used the “reduction” of religious symbols to ordinary objects to mock the reverence of these icons without

directly criticizing the religious imagery.

Like these past writers, Twain’s intention is not nearly to mock or provoke but to level serious criticisms of the

lack of morality and veracity of sacred texts. In this way, like his predecessors, Twain uses humor as a weapon to “blow

[religion] to rags and atoms in a blast,” as his Satan in The Mysterious Stranger puts it. According to Lund, the most

offensive aspect of Twain’s text is that it is funny, because religious believers cannot combat humor with reason. Lund

quotes from Bruce Michelson’s 2000 book Literary Wit to explain Twain’s strategy: the use of humor allows Twaain to

present “unorthodox thought and heretical possibility, without entanglement in the usual hazards: Instances, proofs,

counterarguments, extenuating circumstances, exceptions.” In other words, Twain is not offering serious “theology or

religious argument,” but is simply ridiculing sacred texts. Ridicule is an effective weapon, because “ridicule cannot be

refuted; it can only be suppressed.”