BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens

Subject: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 09:37 AM

Sam Clemens died in his home in Redding, Fairfield County, Connecticut, 93 years ago today. To my mind he was one of the greatest writers the world has produced. I don't think there has ever been anyone who better understood the peculiarity of the American spirit as it found its way out of the nineteenth century.

Here's to you, Sam. Thanks for being Mark Twain -- no-one else could have pulled it off.


A

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: okthen
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 09:54 AM

Born in The year of Halley's comet, died in the year of Halley's comet.

There's not a lot of people know that.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Alba
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 10:17 AM

Life does not consist mainly, or even largely, of facts and happenings. It consists of the storm of thought that is forever flowing through one's head.
Mark Twain

Yes Mr Clemens your mind is to be admired and enjoyed long after your body left us.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: *daylia*
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 10:50 AM

"Dance like no one is watching. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you've never been hurt and live like it's heaven on Earth." - Mark Twain

"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either." - Mark Twain

"Let us be thankful for the fools. But for them the rest of us could not succeed." --Mark Twain 1835-1910

I love the old codger ... thanks, Amos.

daylia

PS - By the way, he lived till 93 and was one of those pathetic low-life smokers??? ("To cease smoking is the easiest thing I ever did. I ought to know, I've done it a thousand times." -- Mark Twain).

Maybe that's got something to do with this Twainism - "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint."

:)   daylia

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Rapparee
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 11:17 AM

Born and raised within 20 miles of Sam's hometown; he's probably my favorite author.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 11:19 AM

One of my prized possessions is a first edition of Tramp Abroad, published and illustrated by him and "friends" in West Hartford, CT.

Also, I never tired of taking visiting friends and family for a tour of his house in the same city. It is magnificent and comfy. They even have the billiard table which he used to play on whilst composing articles, etc. in his head. Take the Virtual Tour for an idea of how wonderful the house is...right next door is Harriet Beecher-Stowe's house.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 11:25 AM

I see they didn't tell all. He decided the headboard of the Master Bed was so beautiful they should sleep with their heads at the foot of the bed to be able to see it. Also, the angels on the bedposts at the foot were detachable and he used to let his children take them down to play with. And, like a lot of Victorians, he slept with the window open no matter the weather!

The pix are not the best, but it is worth looking around, anyway. The outside is marvelous architecture, too. There is also a wonderful library with a conservatory at one end.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Peg
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 12:57 PM

I come from Elmira which is where Twain spent many a summer. His study is still standing on the campus of Elmira College, moved uphill a bit from the riverbank it used to sit on...and he's buried in Elmira, too in Woodlawn cemetery. Schoolkids in our town were taught a healthy reverence for Twain.

Last time I was visiting my parents I went to the farmer's market; one of the few reasons inhabitants have for going into the downtown commercial district which has become a ghost town over the years...most of the businesses stand empty and people long ago threw over this nice shopping district to go to the local mall. Amid the stalls of vegetables and baked goods set up on the common was a man walking around in a white suit made up to look like Twain; he just walked around and waved to people. Very odd but quaint.

My hometown has bungled every attempt it's ever made to capitalize on the Twain legacy; including tearing down Olivia Langdon's house to build a shopping plaza. (One block over they also tore down Tommy Hilfiger's first retail shop, a unisex clothing store from the 1970s called People's Place, to build a hockey rink).

Meanwhile places like Hannibal, MO do just fine drawing tourists interested in Twain. A decade ago the "Mark Twain Drama" drew in a lot of visitors to Elmira; a nice pageanty sort of musical-but-not performance which chronicled Twain's youth to old age...
but there's been nothing since then.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 01:14 PM

Peg, through an odd happenstance I have one marble bookend which has a black etching of Twain's study/house(? can't remember and it's packed, still) at Elmira. It's quite beautiful. (It was a sample of some speciality advertising stuff I was selling at the time.)

kat

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Peg
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 01:31 PM

it's a lovely little octagonal building; just the right size for a summer study! windows on all sides. I can see why he had it designed this way...so he could look all around at the Chemung Valley while on a break from writing...

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 01:52 PM

That's right. Thanks for the reminder!

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 01:55 PM

Lots of quotes from Samuel Clemmens here: Quotes

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 03 - 05:51 PM

"But we are all that way: when we know a thing we have only scorn for other people who don't happen to know it."

HMMM???? How can someone strike so close to the bone from so long ago?


A

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Cluin
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 03:43 AM

"When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries of life disappear and life stands explained."


Because he was a genius, A.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Amos
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 10:02 AM

Ahhhhhh SO!


A

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Wolfgang
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 01:16 PM

once the German language gets hold of a cat, it's goodbye cat

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Amos
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 01:34 PM

LOL!!! I LOVE this guy!!


A

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 04:12 PM

Photos of his Cats, and cat quotes: Twain's Cats

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Amos
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 05:08 PM

Memoirs from his amanuensis, very well done.


A

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: mack/misophist
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 09:38 PM

Mark Twain was the quintessestial American; the image we all ought to try to live up to. Except that I fear it is too late.

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Amos
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 09:53 PM

Dang, Misoph, ya put yer finger on it!

A

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Apr 03 - 10:55 PM

"Live your life so that on the day you die, even the undertaker will be sad."

That's my favorite Clemens/Twain quote...

Bobert

Subject: Mark Twain
From: Allan C.
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 12:04 AM

My favorite quote has always been:

There was never yet an uninteresting life. Such a thing is an impossibility. Inside of the dullest exterior there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy.
- "The Refuge of the Derelicts."1905

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Peg
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 02:02 AM

I loved the pictures of his cats!!!! I wonder if they were taken in his study...great names. I want to name a kitty Blatherskite!

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: JudyR
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 03:44 AM

:

http://yorick.infinitejest.org:81/1/twainwp.html

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: JudyR
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 03:47 AM

I left off my note about the above. As you can see, it's "The War Prayer" by Twain -- does anyone know it?

I was looking for something by him about war a few weeks ago, and came upon it (actually, I was trying to make a blue clickey with just words like "Look at this.." but I couldn't figure out how to do that and I clicked Submit before I was finished).

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: gnu
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 05:34 AM

Mine favourite quote is on exercise... "If you're healthy, you don't need it and if you're sick, you shouldn't take it."

Subject: RE: BS: In Memoriam: Sam Clemens
From: Rapparee
Date: 23 Apr 03 - 03:58 PM

Years ago a friend and me took a graduate student in English Literature around Hannibal, MO. The student was doing his thesis on Twain, and when he saw the Twain house, the house where "Becky Thatcher" lived, went through the cave and did all the tourist schtick, he was just bonkers with Twainiana. Then Steve and I had a wicked, wicked thought....

We took him down to the Hannibal riverfront with the statement that we wanted to show him something special, something only the natives of the area knew about. We pointed out a really terrible building, one with the roof missing, a wall caved in, and so forth, and implied very strongly that long ago it had been a bar and that upstairs, when the ladies plied their trade, the young Samuel Clemens was a regular visitor whenever his riverboat brought him to town.

The student bit and bit hard. The hook was not only set, but swallowed.

Then we couldn't hold it in any more and Steve and I almost literally fell apart laughing. The student understood when we were able to point out the building's cornerstone, which showed that it had been built in 1896....

He didn't speak to us until we sprung for beer.