Happy Birthday To The Late, Great American Humorist And Novelist Mark Twain

Happy birthday to one of my favorite writers, the late, great American humorist and novelist Mark Twain. 

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, was born on this date in 1835.

You can read about Mark Twain's life and work via the below link to Biography.com:

Mark Twain - Quotes, Books & Real Name - Biography

And you can read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour below:

Note: You can click on the above to enlarge.

On This Day In History America's Great Humorist And Author Mark Twain Was Born

As History.com notes, Mark Twain was born on this date in 1835. 

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, was the author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Roughing It, Life on the Mississippi, and other American classics. 

You can read about his life and work via the below link:  

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/mark-twain-is-born?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2019-1130-11302019&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&
om_mid=828714979&kx_EmailCampaignID=39394&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2019-1130-11302019&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5
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Malcolm Muggeridge, the late British journalist, author and editor of Britain's late, great weekly satirical magazine, Punch, once said that he never tired of reading Mark Twain, or reading about him.

Although I don’t always agree with Mark Twain’s worldview, I share that notion. Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers.

So I was pleased to be able to review Richard Zacks' Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour for the Philadelphia Inquirer. 

You can read my review below:

25 Unforgettable Mark Twain Quotes From His Books About Love And The Meaning Of Life

Malcolm Muggeridge, the late British journalist, author and editor of Britain's late, great weekly satirical magazine, Punch, once said that he never tired of reading Mark Twain, or reading about him. 

Although I don’t always agree with Mark Twain’s worldview, I share that notion. Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers.

So I was pleased to come across a list of 25 of his quotes about love and the meaning of life at yourtango.com.   

"The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” —Mark Twain

You can read the rest of the quotes, a bit about Mark Twain's life, and view a short video via the below link:

https://www.yourtango.com/2019325490/best-mark-twain-quotes

  

You can also read my Philadelphia Inquirer review of Richard Zacks' Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour via the below link: 

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/entertainment/20161016_Mark_Twain_s_world_tour_comes_

to_life_in__Chasing_

the_Last_Laugh_.html 

My Philadelphia Inquirer Review of 'Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous And Redemptive Round-The-World Comedy Tour'

Malcolm Muggeridge, the late British journalist, author and editor of Britain's late, great weekly satirical magazine, Punch, once said that he never tired of reading Mark Twain, or reading about him. 

Although I don’t always agree with Mark Twain’s worldview, I share that notion. Mark Twain is one of my favorite writers.

So I was pleased to be able to review a book about Mark Twain, Richard Zacks' Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour, for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

When I was a teenager, I read Mark Twain's Following the Equator, and I reread it a few years back. Richard Zacks' Chasing the Last Laugh essentially covers the same material the master himself wrote about in his 1897 book - greatly augmented by Zacks' excellent research.

From Equator, we get Twain's opinions on colonialism, imperialism, class warfare, British arrogance, and decimation of native peoples. Zacks adds passages from Twain's letters and notebooks, as well as photos and other material at the Mark Twain Project at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Clifton Waller Barrett Collection at the University of Virginia. There is also a local connection: Zacks was advised on 1890s bankruptcy law by University of Pennsylvania professor David A. Skeel.

The result is an interesting, often funny book about a traumatic and fascinating time in Twain's life. Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was the highest-paid writer in America in 1894, but he was also a terrible investor. He lost most of his fortune from his books on inventions and investments that didn't work out. His wife, an heiress, was horrified. She insisted Twain pay back his investors. So, at age 59, he traveled across America and embarked on a world public speaking tour, which had never been done before. 

You can read the review via the below link:

http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/20161016_Mark_Twain_s_world_tour_comes_to_life_in__Chasing_the_Last_Laugh_.html

Or read the review below:

Even Broke, Mark Twain Traveled In Style

Richard Zacks, author of Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain's Raucous and Redemptive Around-the-World Tour, offers a piece from the book at the Daily Beast. 

Celebrity perks usually amount to a few comped bottles of champagne or courtside tickets. A British railway once set aside 35 miles of mountain track in the Himalayas forMark Twain to use as a private roller coaster ride. Six-seater car, a handbrake and a long way down if the car jumped the edge. (He expected it would.) He shared that opinion with his wife and daughter just as they boarded.

In 1895/1896, in a mostly forgotten trip, Mark Twain traveled around the world, performing 90 minutes of stand-up in 71 different cities, across the United States and the fading British Empire, in Australia, New Zealand, India, Southern Africa. He spent almost 100 days at sea and 50 days sick in bed.

This most American of authors rode an elephant in India, at a palace owned by one of the ten wealthiest men in the world, the “Gaikwar of Baroda.” (Twain loved the exotic names: the “Nizam of Hyderabad,” the “Nawab of Mysore.”) “I took a ride; but it was by request—I did not ask for it, and didn’t want it; but I took it, because otherwise they would have thought I was afraid, which I was.” The elephant’s gold ankle hoops and jewel-encrusted howdah were worth more than Twain’s entire savings at the time, which then amounted to nothing; the author of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer was traveling around the world to pay off huge debts from failed business ventures.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/23/even-broke-mark-twain-traveled-in-style.html

Mark Twain And The Colonel: The Two Kings Of The Gilded Age

Richard Zacks at the Wall Street Journal offers an interesting review of an interesting book about two great American historical figures who didn't care much for each other, Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt.

Mark Twain called Theodore Roosevelt the "most popular human being that has ever existed in the United States"; he also called him "far and away the worst president we have ever had." Twain made these observations in his autobiography in 1906 but ordered them embargoed for 100 years.

Roosevelt once remarked privately to a friend that he would like to see Twain "skinned alive." He dismissed Twain's anti-imperialism as part of the "silly, mock humanitarianism of the prattlers who sit at home in peace."

Philip McFarland in "Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt and the Arrival of a New Century" delights in spotlighting the secret vitriol between these two mustachioed men, who, in the first decade of the 20th century, arguably ranked as the most famous Americans on the planet.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304141204577508631628056776.html?mod=googlenews_wsj