WEBVTT - How Mark Twain Worked

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how

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<v Speaker 1>Stuff Works dot Com. Hello and welcome to the podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm Katie Lambert and joining me today is Sarah Dowdy.

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<v Speaker 1>How are you, Sarah? I'm well, how are you, Katie good.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm going to start you off with a quote today

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<v Speaker 1>by a very famous man, and you can guess who

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<v Speaker 1>it is. Okay, man is a marvelous curiosity. When he's

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<v Speaker 1>at his very very best, he is a sort of

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<v Speaker 1>low grade nickel plated angel. At his worst, he's unspeakable, unimaginable,

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<v Speaker 1>and first and last and all the time, he's a sarcasm.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm gonna hazard. That was Mark Twain Bingo. So today

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<v Speaker 1>we're talking about Mark Twain, mr. Literary genius, and we'll

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<v Speaker 1>start with his childhood as we do. Samuel Langhorne Clemens

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<v Speaker 1>was born in Florida, Missouri, in eighteen thirty five. UM.

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<v Speaker 1>He was premature and pretty thickly for the first ten

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<v Speaker 1>years of his life, which contributed a lot to how

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<v Speaker 1>his personality developed. He had to stay inside with his mother,

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<v Speaker 1>so he was kind of coddled, but he liked to

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<v Speaker 1>rebel with little acts of mischief, and you know, it

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<v Speaker 1>was a sweet, good natured kid though. Um. And he

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<v Speaker 1>also had a lot of remedies that his mother would

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<v Speaker 1>try to, you know, perform on him, which might have

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<v Speaker 1>added to kind of some quackery. The guinea pig child

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<v Speaker 1>happened later in life. He was one of seven kids.

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<v Speaker 1>I think he was number six of the seven um Orion, Pamela, Pleasant, Margaret, Benjamin,

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<v Speaker 1>and Henry. And only three of them I believe lived

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<v Speaker 1>out of childhood, and obviously Samuel was one of them.

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<v Speaker 1>His parents had a courteous but not a warm may

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<v Speaker 1>Ridge he has said, yeah, and um. When he was

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<v Speaker 1>a few years old, Uh, the family's fortunes kind of

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<v Speaker 1>started to change and they were forced to move to Hannibal, Missouri,

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<v Speaker 1>on the Mississippi River. Um. And another thing he would

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<v Speaker 1>talk about is he you know, he was kind of poor,

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<v Speaker 1>but the family had this unsettling belief that they would

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<v Speaker 1>come into money. His father owned some property in Tennessee,

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<v Speaker 1>which I'm not sure why, but he believed that would

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<v Speaker 1>be his fortune in the end. And he he later

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<v Speaker 1>said that it's a fine thing to grow up rich.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a fine thing to grow up poor, that's wholesome,

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<v Speaker 1>But to grow up perspectively, rich is not a healthy state. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>and kind of in between the two, even having the

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<v Speaker 1>prospect of it behind you and also in front of you. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it may not give you the most healthy attitude toward money, which,

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<v Speaker 1>as we'll see later, definitely affected him. Yeah, but Hannibal

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<v Speaker 1>was a nice place for a kid to grow up

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<v Speaker 1>for a lot of ways. It had a lot of

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<v Speaker 1>fun outdoor pursuits, and some of his favorite boyhood sites

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<v Speaker 1>like Glasgow's Island and McDowell's Cave later appear in his writing. Um,

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<v Speaker 1>and as a boy he also read a lot James Fenimore, Cooper,

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<v Speaker 1>Sir Walter Scott. He played Robin Hood and pirates with

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<v Speaker 1>his friends. Um, but it wasn't all super picturesque. So

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<v Speaker 1>you're telling me some gruesome stories this morning and looking

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<v Speaker 1>over your notes, and it's it's a little disturbing. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>he uh. You know, Hannibal was sometimes a rather violent town,

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<v Speaker 1>and just in his childhood he found a corpse in

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<v Speaker 1>his father's office. We should say his father was a

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<v Speaker 1>justice of the peace, so not quite as bad as

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<v Speaker 1>it sounds. But he saw a man who was shot

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<v Speaker 1>to die in the street. He watched a friend drowned

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<v Speaker 1>and he found a few days after that, he found

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<v Speaker 1>a drowned and mutilated body of a fugitive slave. So

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<v Speaker 1>that all sounds like a pretty traumatic childhood, but maybe

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<v Speaker 1>it's par for the chorus for a boundary state. At

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<v Speaker 1>the time, I don't know. And I had read a

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<v Speaker 1>story about his family owned a slave, Jenny, who acted

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<v Speaker 1>as their nursemaid, and he saw her brutally whipped when

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<v Speaker 1>he was about six after a little altercation with his mother.

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<v Speaker 1>So the slavery stuff will figure in his works as well. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and he was also influenced. During his summers, he'd go

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<v Speaker 1>back to Florida, Missouri to stay with his uncle, and

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<v Speaker 1>he and his cousins would be told tales by a

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<v Speaker 1>slave called Uncle Daniel, who ended up being in part

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<v Speaker 1>a model for Jim in Huckleberry Finn. And another little

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<v Speaker 1>fact I like about his childhood was that he was

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<v Speaker 1>a sleepwalker. One night, when he was sleepwalking, he apparently

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<v Speaker 1>went to sister's room and picked up the edge of

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<v Speaker 1>her covers, which was supposed to be superstitiously a sign

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<v Speaker 1>that someone was going to die, and she did die

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<v Speaker 1>the next day, which led everyone in his family to

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<v Speaker 1>think that he had the second sight, and that was

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<v Speaker 1>another thing that stayed with him, that idea of paranormal activity.

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<v Speaker 1>And he was interested in science and invention. You know,

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<v Speaker 1>it seems later in life too, he takes responsibility for

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<v Speaker 1>death that clearly are not I wonder if that it

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<v Speaker 1>started way back then. But like most you know, young

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<v Speaker 1>boys at the time, he takes an apprenticeship and works

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<v Speaker 1>for a printer. And one story I really enjoy about

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<v Speaker 1>his apprenticeship that he tells in his autobiography, which I

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<v Speaker 1>would highly recommend. I've read the Charles Needer version, although

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<v Speaker 1>there are a few of them out there. Um. But

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<v Speaker 1>when he was working as a printer's apprentice to make

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<v Speaker 1>something fit a sermon, they put j C in for

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<v Speaker 1>Jesus Christ. And you know, obviously the printer thought that

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<v Speaker 1>was disrespectful and told them they had better put the

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<v Speaker 1>full name every single time they would not be abbreviating it.

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<v Speaker 1>And so, just to be a jerk, he put Jesus H.

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<v Speaker 1>Christ and all in all instances and gotten quite a

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<v Speaker 1>bit of trouble. But you know, his his printing career

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<v Speaker 1>kind of got off to a start maybe after that

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<v Speaker 1>despite that. Uh, and he was fortunate enough to have

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<v Speaker 1>an older brother who was already established in printing and publishing. Um.

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<v Speaker 1>He his brother Orion bought the Hannibal Journal, and uh,

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<v Speaker 1>Samuel contributed sketches and articles as well as you know,

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<v Speaker 1>doing type studying and printing work. And isn't that I

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<v Speaker 1>think that's the first time he used a pseudonym. It

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<v Speaker 1>is and his first pseudonym. This might be mangled here,

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<v Speaker 1>but w et the note. Nanda's justice Perkins. We've had

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of troubles with their names because the entire

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<v Speaker 1>time we thought Orion was a Ryan and Pamela was Pamela.

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<v Speaker 1>We were wrong. His mother liked different um, she liked

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<v Speaker 1>different lats definitely, So, Sarah, as you have said, Mark

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<v Speaker 1>Twain had entirely too many jobs for you to remember.

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<v Speaker 1>So he went on from this newspaper job and started

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<v Speaker 1>working at printing shops and was also writing, and then

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<v Speaker 1>he went to South America. He was planning to go

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<v Speaker 1>to South America. Sounds like kind of a crazy scheme,

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<v Speaker 1>but he was going to take a steamboat in eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>fifty seven to New Orleans and then from there going

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<v Speaker 1>to South America. But he never made it because he

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<v Speaker 1>was so fascinated by the steamboat, got talking to the

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<v Speaker 1>captain and persuaded the captain to take him on as

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<v Speaker 1>a steamboat pilot apprentice, which ended up being one of

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<v Speaker 1>his favorite jobs. He absolutely loved it. The freedom and um,

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<v Speaker 1>technical skill and discipline that came with being a pilot. Well,

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<v Speaker 1>and if you got your pilot license, I think you were.

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<v Speaker 1>It was a pretty lucrative job. Although it was it

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<v Speaker 1>was tough. You had to know all the different depths

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<v Speaker 1>and marks and everything of the river, which was not easy.

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<v Speaker 1>This is also when he first hears the name Mark Twain.

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<v Speaker 1>He lampoons a senior pilot, Isaiah Sellars, who had published

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<v Speaker 1>some very short, to the point observations of life on

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<v Speaker 1>the Mississippi and weather and very straightforward things. Uh. And

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<v Speaker 1>even though Clemens kind of mocked him, he really liked

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<v Speaker 1>this guy's pen name, and so he kept it. He

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<v Speaker 1>did his own to his credit, when he started using

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<v Speaker 1>the pen name Mark Twain, he thought that Isaiah Sellers

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<v Speaker 1>was dead. Not true, because somebody stole your pen name.

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<v Speaker 1>Don't steal mine, Sarah. He had to leave steamboat piloting.

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<v Speaker 1>I think you and I had found different things. I

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<v Speaker 1>found that it was because um, the war was breaking

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<v Speaker 1>out and the business was drying up, and I think

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<v Speaker 1>you found something. I heard that he was a little

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<v Speaker 1>worried he'd be impressed as a Union gunboat pilot, which

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<v Speaker 1>and at some point I think he was part of

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<v Speaker 1>a Confederate unit, so I don't think he would have

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<v Speaker 1>enjoyed that well. His his allegiance during the Civil War

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<v Speaker 1>is a little questionable, though he has his older brother

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<v Speaker 1>Orion was actually a really strong Lincoln supporter, so I guess,

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<v Speaker 1>like any um border state like that, he kind of

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<v Speaker 1>cane in the middle. He quit the Marian Rangers, which

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<v Speaker 1>was the volunteer Confederate unit, after two weeks, so apparently

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<v Speaker 1>wasn't not dedicated to At this point point, he took

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<v Speaker 1>yet another job and decided that he would go mind

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<v Speaker 1>some silver. Who would really like to see Mark Twain's resume.

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<v Speaker 1>I think there would be some gaps and there It

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<v Speaker 1>might be hard to explain, but he wasn't a very

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<v Speaker 1>good miner at all. And he also started investing in

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<v Speaker 1>timber and silver and gold stocks at this point. And

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<v Speaker 1>you know, we talked about his father's belief in prospecting. Uh.

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<v Speaker 1>Mark Twain was also or Clemens, still at this point

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<v Speaker 1>was not a good businessman, but part of this experience

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<v Speaker 1>when he was mining um went into his book roughing it,

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<v Speaker 1>so it was good for his literary career, if not

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<v Speaker 1>for his pocketbook. And during this time he also starts

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<v Speaker 1>writing letters to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise which are

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<v Speaker 1>so impressive they catch the attention of the editor who

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<v Speaker 1>offers him a job as a reporter. He takes on

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<v Speaker 1>his third apprenticeship in life Um and starts to be

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<v Speaker 1>a journalist and people started to know Mark Twain's name

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<v Speaker 1>in eighteen sixty five when he published a short story

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<v Speaker 1>called Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog, which got picked

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<v Speaker 1>up by papers all across the country and people loved it. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>it was a story he learned while mining. Actually, so

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<v Speaker 1>his varied work experience influenced his writings lucrative in a

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<v Speaker 1>different way. And he got hired at a different paper

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<v Speaker 1>and started a sort of travel writing career which again

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<v Speaker 1>ended up being very lucrative for him, and he was

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<v Speaker 1>able to publish the account later as Innocence Abroad in

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<v Speaker 1>eighteen sixty nine, and that was also his traveling during

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<v Speaker 1>that time also had another important effect in that he

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<v Speaker 1>met Olivia Langdon, who would become his wife. And I

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<v Speaker 1>am kind of obsessed with her, as was he, so

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<v Speaker 1>I'm really excited about this. She was the daughter of

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<v Speaker 1>a wealthy cole merchant. Their family was very progressive, they

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<v Speaker 1>were abolitionists, and he once referred to her as my faithful,

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<v Speaker 1>judicious and painstaking editor. He was very very much in

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<v Speaker 1>love with her his whole life, and Sarah and I

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<v Speaker 1>found a bunch of letters between him and his wife

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<v Speaker 1>on Mark Twain project dot org, where you can go

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<v Speaker 1>read and say all the sweet things to each other.

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<v Speaker 1>He makes his first attempt at a novel in eighteen

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<v Speaker 1>seventy three. The Gilded Age and Tom Sawyer came out

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<v Speaker 1>in eighteen seventy six, which has not ever gone out

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<v Speaker 1>of print. It's an extremely popular book still today. Yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and Clemmens was actually so taken by the character Huck

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<v Speaker 1>Finn and Tom Sawyer that he decided that Huck needed

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<v Speaker 1>his own narrative and started to write Huck Finn's autobiography

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<v Speaker 1>the same summer that Tom Sawyer was published, and decided

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<v Speaker 1>pretty quickly too, that it needed to be written in

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<v Speaker 1>Huck's own dialect, and he worked on Huck Finn, which

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<v Speaker 1>I think most people would consider his masterpiece. He worked

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<v Speaker 1>on it for years and years and would take on

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<v Speaker 1>other projects, and he didn't actually publish it until and

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<v Speaker 1>Ernest Hemingway said of Huck Finn, all modern American literature

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<v Speaker 1>comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn

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<v Speaker 1>and then goes on to say there was nothing before,

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<v Speaker 1>there has been nothing good since. So those are pretty

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<v Speaker 1>high accolades for a book. And also, like this man,

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<v Speaker 1>Hal Holbrook, who starred in a one man stage show

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<v Speaker 1>of Mark Twain, so you know, he obviously had a

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<v Speaker 1>pretty intimate understanding of Mark Twain playing him for years,

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<v Speaker 1>wrote that he made American speech something to be admired.

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<v Speaker 1>And I think that's a really good point. If you

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<v Speaker 1>haven't read Hook Finn, I would recommend that you do so,

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<v Speaker 1>but of course I'm an English major, so I would.

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<v Speaker 1>But the dialect is really interesting to read, and you

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<v Speaker 1>you do, it does something to the book because you

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<v Speaker 1>couldn't have gotten other It's not trying to be like

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<v Speaker 1>anything else. No, and it really did seem like the

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<v Speaker 1>first thing that it was so just truly through and

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<v Speaker 1>through truly American. So he moves to Europe for a

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<v Speaker 1>while and publishes him more books, A Tramp Abroad and

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<v Speaker 1>The Prince and the Pauper among them. And he also

0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:24.880
<v Speaker 1>travels at the Mississippi and starts taking notes for Life

0:14:24.880 --> 0:14:34.080
<v Speaker 1>on the Mississippi, talking about Mississippi's um. But he also

0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:38.400
<v Speaker 1>starts making pretty bad investments at this point, even more

0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:43.120
<v Speaker 1>bad investments, especially his support for James Page, who was

0:14:43.160 --> 0:14:46.480
<v Speaker 1>working on an automatic type setting machine. This is the

0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:50.720
<v Speaker 1>worst thing ever he committed over the years. He committed

0:14:50.960 --> 0:14:55.560
<v Speaker 1>like a couple to two hundred thousand dollars fortune between

0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:58.800
<v Speaker 1>eighteen eighty and eighteen ninety four to this machine. There's

0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:02.240
<v Speaker 1>um there. It actually is one in the Mark Twain

0:15:02.320 --> 0:15:05.200
<v Speaker 1>House Museum, but they're afraid to ever take it apart

0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:07.200
<v Speaker 1>because no one might be able to put it back

0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:11.400
<v Speaker 1>together again because it was notoriously finicky. And he was

0:15:11.800 --> 0:15:14.040
<v Speaker 1>riding so high. At this point he has a successful

0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:19.280
<v Speaker 1>biography of Ulysses Grant, and he writes Connecticut Yankee and

0:15:19.360 --> 0:15:22.800
<v Speaker 1>King Arthur's Court. Um. He actually thinks that that's going

0:15:22.840 --> 0:15:27.440
<v Speaker 1>to be his quote swan song to literature, because he

0:15:27.480 --> 0:15:31.160
<v Speaker 1>thinks his investments are all about to really, you know,

0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:33.800
<v Speaker 1>start bringing in the big money. He thought this machine,

0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:35.840
<v Speaker 1>he's quoted saying he thought it would be bigger than

0:15:35.880 --> 0:15:39.880
<v Speaker 1>the train, the telephone, or the cotton gin. And it

0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:42.440
<v Speaker 1>turned out that the Lena type machine came out and

0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:48.960
<v Speaker 1>made it immediately. Yeah. So uh, Clemmens goes into huge

0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:55.000
<v Speaker 1>debt manages to transfer the rights of his literature to

0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.400
<v Speaker 1>his wife, Happy rights to Livy, which I think he

0:15:57.480 --> 0:15:59.920
<v Speaker 1>originally didn't want to do. He thought he would just

0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.280
<v Speaker 1>sell those and get them out of debt. And she

0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.240
<v Speaker 1>was the one who kept trying to convince him not to,

0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:08.800
<v Speaker 1>saying that was their investment in the copyrights, and of

0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:11.560
<v Speaker 1>course she was right, So he transferred his money to

0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:15.080
<v Speaker 1>her and declared personal bankruptcy in eighteen ninety four. He

0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.600
<v Speaker 1>was really bad with money. He kept investing with all

0:16:17.640 --> 0:16:20.920
<v Speaker 1>the wrong people and just spending it in ways that

0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:25.240
<v Speaker 1>don't make sense from a business perspective. And so since

0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:28.520
<v Speaker 1>it's forced to keep working, he starts to think more

0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:33.160
<v Speaker 1>about his legacy and tries to cultivate a serious tone,

0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.840
<v Speaker 1>but can't. He can't. By this point, he can't get

0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:41.120
<v Speaker 1>away from the Mark Twain humorous persona right, that's how

0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.080
<v Speaker 1>what people wanted him to be. When they saw him,

0:16:43.120 --> 0:16:46.360
<v Speaker 1>and when they read him, they wanted him to be funny.

0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:50.760
<v Speaker 1>And a lot of tragedies start happening at this point

0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:55.640
<v Speaker 1>in his life too. In his daughter Susie dies of

0:16:56.080 --> 0:17:00.120
<v Speaker 1>spinal meningitis. She was only twenty four, I think, and

0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.280
<v Speaker 1>it was absolutely heartbreaking for both him and for Livy,

0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:05.120
<v Speaker 1>and they'd said they never got over it. They had

0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:10.400
<v Speaker 1>three daughters, and you know, despite despite him being away

0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:14.320
<v Speaker 1>traveling a lot, he was very attached to them, extremely

0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.480
<v Speaker 1>attached to all the women in his life. Actually he

0:17:16.520 --> 0:17:18.880
<v Speaker 1>had also they had had a young son named Langdon,

0:17:18.920 --> 0:17:20.920
<v Speaker 1>who died I think when he was only nineteen months

0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:24.200
<v Speaker 1>old of ditheria. So this wasn't the first sad thing

0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:28.400
<v Speaker 1>to happen to their family. Um. But soon after Susie died,

0:17:28.680 --> 0:17:33.199
<v Speaker 1>his another daughter, Jean, was diagnosed with epilepsy UM and

0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:36.520
<v Speaker 1>the family spent a lot of time and money traveling

0:17:36.800 --> 0:17:40.439
<v Speaker 1>to different doctors looking for a cure for her, which

0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.080
<v Speaker 1>they didn't find. UM. But to offset some of the

0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:45.320
<v Speaker 1>sad stuff, I found a list of books they had

0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.360
<v Speaker 1>in their library that their family enjoyed reading, which made

0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.200
<v Speaker 1>me happy. Through the looking glass, Uncle Remus Robin Hood,

0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:54.600
<v Speaker 1>Little Lord Fauntleroy, which Sarah said she didn't know it

0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:56.440
<v Speaker 1>was an actual book. I thought it was an outfit

0:17:57.000 --> 0:17:59.840
<v Speaker 1>Uncle Tom's cabin, and the whole family liked reading to

0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:05.000
<v Speaker 1>other Um Cole Ridge, Kipling, Shelley Tennyson, and longfellow Um

0:18:05.119 --> 0:18:08.560
<v Speaker 1>Livy really liked Jane Austen, but Mark Twain was having

0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.400
<v Speaker 1>none out of it. He really didn't like her. Um

0:18:12.400 --> 0:18:16.000
<v Speaker 1>and he starts to, you know, sort of put his

0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:19.720
<v Speaker 1>finances back in order at this point, mostly thanks to

0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:23.480
<v Speaker 1>the help of Henry Huddleson Rogers, who was a standard

0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:28.919
<v Speaker 1>oil man who helped him invest and also start building

0:18:29.040 --> 0:18:34.520
<v Speaker 1>up this reputation as a moral character that we we

0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.960
<v Speaker 1>associate with him now, somebody who you can go to

0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:42.120
<v Speaker 1>for these quotes that might be a little colorful or funny,

0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:46.240
<v Speaker 1>but they they kind of take a real strict moral

0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:48.960
<v Speaker 1>stand on something. Well, yeah, a lot of them start

0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:53.720
<v Speaker 1>to get very political after certain points, really anti imperialist,

0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.960
<v Speaker 1>and I think he was vice president of the Anti

0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.240
<v Speaker 1>Imperialist Society for a long time time. And he was

0:19:01.280 --> 0:19:06.840
<v Speaker 1>also against anti Semitism and slavery and was very vocal.

0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:11.040
<v Speaker 1>He was he was extremely vocal about the Belgian rule

0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:16.600
<v Speaker 1>in Congo. Actually he wrote up an essay regarding King

0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:22.159
<v Speaker 1>Leopold and Congo that was so intense that it wasn't

0:19:22.240 --> 0:19:25.159
<v Speaker 1>published anywhere, and he got in trouble for some of

0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:29.160
<v Speaker 1>these stances. He gave a really I guess sarcastic introduction

0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:34.679
<v Speaker 1>of Winston Churchill once and people were scandalized because a

0:19:34.720 --> 0:19:38.200
<v Speaker 1>lot of these essays are so hardline moral. A lot

0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:41.280
<v Speaker 1>of people called this period his bad mood of period,

0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.240
<v Speaker 1>which was a bit simplistic. I think that's not what

0:19:44.560 --> 0:19:47.199
<v Speaker 1>he was going for. Yeah, he was just trying to

0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:50.959
<v Speaker 1>shake off a little of the lightness of some of

0:19:51.000 --> 0:19:54.600
<v Speaker 1>his earlier work, and that that world lecture tour made

0:19:54.640 --> 0:19:58.160
<v Speaker 1>him rich again. It was grueling, but he did make

0:19:58.240 --> 0:20:00.199
<v Speaker 1>quite a bit of money on it, and actually, for

0:20:00.240 --> 0:20:03.200
<v Speaker 1>some people, I think became more famous for his speaking

0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.080
<v Speaker 1>than for his actual writing. And he pockets a few

0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.639
<v Speaker 1>honored degrees on the way too from Oxford. That was

0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:12.879
<v Speaker 1>his favorite one. He liked to wear the gown around

0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:14.399
<v Speaker 1>the place. He did. I think he wore one of

0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:18.879
<v Speaker 1>them in his daughter's wedding. Yeah, that might signal bad

0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:21.800
<v Speaker 1>turn for him. To wear your fancy, ornamental gown when

0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:24.760
<v Speaker 1>your daughter's in her wedding dress, I would say. But

0:20:24.920 --> 0:20:28.840
<v Speaker 1>in nineteen o four, Livvy dies in Italy. She's been

0:20:28.880 --> 0:20:32.000
<v Speaker 1>sick for a long time. She was an invalid and

0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:35.479
<v Speaker 1>again the love of his life. So this was huge

0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:38.560
<v Speaker 1>for him. In his autobiography he says, and I quote,

0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:41.040
<v Speaker 1>she was my life and she has gone. She was

0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:44.160
<v Speaker 1>my riches and I am a pauper. He was absolutely

0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.520
<v Speaker 1>devastated when she died. They've been staying in this sa

0:20:46.600 --> 0:20:48.480
<v Speaker 1>villa that he hated, and he kept thinking if he

0:20:48.560 --> 0:20:51.280
<v Speaker 1>got her somewhere else, you know, found the perfect palazzo

0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:54.439
<v Speaker 1>that she would be okay. And he found it and

0:20:54.480 --> 0:20:56.560
<v Speaker 1>went into her bedroom that night to tell her about

0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.480
<v Speaker 1>it and remembers her smiling, and then she died the

0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:05.600
<v Speaker 1>next morning. So he writes Eve's Diary for her, and

0:21:05.720 --> 0:21:13.000
<v Speaker 1>he tended to write poems or pieces of literature for

0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:16.640
<v Speaker 1>the women in his life as they started to die

0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:22.399
<v Speaker 1>up to memorialize them. And his daughter Jean died a

0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:26.600
<v Speaker 1>few years after that in n nine. I think connected

0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.760
<v Speaker 1>to her applette. She had a heart attack during an

0:21:29.760 --> 0:21:35.760
<v Speaker 1>epileptic seizure um and this sort of plunges him into

0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:41.639
<v Speaker 1>his last despair with you know, most of his family

0:21:42.000 --> 0:21:45.359
<v Speaker 1>is dead. By this point. He has one surviving daughter,

0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:49.240
<v Speaker 1>but she's left. She's left married and moved to Europe

0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:56.600
<v Speaker 1>um and so Clemens ends up going to Bermuda after

0:21:57.800 --> 0:22:02.160
<v Speaker 1>Jean has been buried, because through Muda with his biographer,

0:22:02.560 --> 0:22:05.919
<v Speaker 1>and his last writing was actually humorous, back to his

0:22:06.320 --> 0:22:10.520
<v Speaker 1>old style kind of uh called Etiquette for the Afterlife

0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.760
<v Speaker 1>advised pain. And one of the last things he wrote

0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:18.840
<v Speaker 1>um was death the only immortal who treats us all alike?

0:22:18.920 --> 0:22:21.520
<v Speaker 1>Whose pity and whose peace and whose revenger for all

0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:23.840
<v Speaker 1>the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor,

0:22:23.880 --> 0:22:26.760
<v Speaker 1>the loved and the unloved. And he writes in his

0:22:26.800 --> 0:22:31.600
<v Speaker 1>autobiography of being at the funeral of Gene and knowing

0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:35.159
<v Speaker 1>that he's going to die soon after that he was

0:22:35.200 --> 0:22:38.240
<v Speaker 1>pretty convinced that it wouldn't be long, and he did.

0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:43.240
<v Speaker 1>He did no more than four months afterwards. I think

0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:45.960
<v Speaker 1>my favorite quote about him is actually from Livy and

0:22:46.040 --> 0:22:47.960
<v Speaker 1>one of her letters, when she wrote, life is not

0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:52.200
<v Speaker 1>so interesting when you're away, because from everything we've learned,

0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:55.040
<v Speaker 1>it sounds like that's pretty spot on the Mark Twain.

0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:58.440
<v Speaker 1>So if you'd like to learn more about Mark Twain

0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:01.720
<v Speaker 1>and other literary great Please check out our website and

0:23:01.800 --> 0:23:05.040
<v Speaker 1>the Stuff you Missed to History blog at www dot

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0:23:08.920 --> 0:23:12.720
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0:23:12.800 --> 0:23:14.919
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