Mark Twain Revisited

By
Duncan L. Dieterly

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He died
seventy-five years later on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut. He was a celebrated
internationally acclaimed American author and humorist who preferred the pen name of Mark
Twain. Twain is widely known for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) as well as his travel writings like, Innocents Abroad (1869)
and other fiction books; Prince and the Pauper (1882). Even today, his witty remarks are still
extensively quoted. For example: “In discarding the monkey and substituting man, our Father in
Heaven did the monkey an undeserved injustice.”, from - Mark Twain's Autobiography; Mark
Twain in Eruption.
Twain was one of the first American mega-writers who mingled with presidents, artists,
industrialists, and European royalty. He also was instrumental in getting President US Grant’s
autobiography published.
Twain was a popular speaker, and his keen wit and incisive satire earned praise from both
critics and peers. Upon his death, he was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age."
Both Ernest Hemmingway and William Faulkner considered Twain to be the father of American
literature.
His place in American literature is secure but it appears that the current academic
analyzers will not let him rest in peace. Recently there was an article about an new book, Mark
Twain’s Other Woman: The Hidden Story of his Final Years by Laura Skandera Trombly that
reflects negatively on him in terms of a relationship he had with a former personal assistant,
Isabel Van Kleek Lyon. It is based on an unpublished four hundred and fifty page manuscript
that he wrote about her which apparently savaged her reputation, produced allegedly slowly to be
used as a blackmail tool to protect his families secrets if required.
In addition, there was another article indicating that the city fathers of Hannibal, Missouri
are busy boosting their town and coffers by having a centennial celebration of the 100th
anniversary of his death with appropriate events, productions and commercial sales. Even after a
hundred years I suspect you can buy a Mark Twain boggle head in Hannibal. Isn’t
merchandising grand!
None of this is of any consequence to him; but it is a sad commentary on our society.
When we digress to pulling up a dusty stuffed effigy out of the past and spend a great amount of
time dissecting his personality, intimate family life or of gawking at locations that are
supposedly in his books with a big hot dog in one hand and a dripping ice cream cone in the
other.
His legacy to the world is an outstanding body of literature and that should be our focus:
neither on his personality quirks nor speculations on his novel’s possible locations. It is time to
let him rest in peace, stop examining the man and his foibles, and just continue to enjoy his
outstanding creative writings.

The End
Copyright © 2010 by Duncan L. Dieterly
506 words
April 17, 2010