Remembering Mark Twain 100 Years After His Death
Today marks the centennial anniversary of the death of celebrated American author Mark Twain. The people and themes that Twain wrote about still strike a chord with modern audiences, as Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer remain among the world’s most beloved literary characters. Also a testament to his enduring popularity, is the fact that many of his books are still in print. In an interview with USA Today, author Wally Lamb (I Know This Much Is True) calls Twain “America’s most influential writer.” Lamb believes “Huck Finn‘s young narrator…is a prototype for J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye and Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scholars and writers continue to be fascinated with Twain’s novels, as well as the rocky events of his real life. Several new books analyzing the author’s life and work are slated to be released this year, including Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens by Texas A&M professor Jerome Loving (University of California Press, 491pgs) and The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Library of America, 492pgs). Additionally, several new editions of his books will are schedule to be published this year in Portuguese, French, and Japanese.
In celebration of this anniversary, The Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford, CT will host a fundraiser and stage a 19th-century séance this evening. A professional illusionist will perform the séance, and reveal the tricks that charlatans used in the 1800′s to fleece innocent people. Museum director Jeffrey Nichols believes Twain would enjoy the performance, since the author “loved debunking things and had a skeptical interest in spiritualism.”
The museum, a 25-room mansion built in the Gothic Revival style was once Twain’s private residence, and houses numerous exhibits illustrating the “boom-and-bust history” of his life. Among them, a Paige typesetting machine, the manufacture of which Twain invested a large sum of money. The machine proved to be a failure, and the writer was forced into bankruptcy. He approached this disappointment with his usual wry wit and stated: “To succeed in business, avoid my example.”
Did you know the author was born to humble beginnings in Missouri in 1835, and worked as a steamboat captain and a printer before re-imagining himself as Mark Twain? Find out how well you know Twain’s life, and learn some fascinating trivia, by taking The Guardian’s quiz.
