The Importance of Mark Twain
Author(s): Alan Gribben
Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, Special Issue: American Humor (Spring, 1985), pp. 30
-49
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712761
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THE IMPORTANCE OF MARK TWAIN
ALANGRIBBEN
ofTexas,Austin
University
MARK TWAIN IS THE ONLY WRITER WE HAVE RECOGNIZED AS AN AUTHOR OF IM-
mortalAmericanproseafterhavingbrandedhima "humorist."Whenin 1956
FloydStovallexplainedtheselectionprocessthatincludedMarkTwain(along
andJames)among
Thoreau,Melville,Whitman,
withPoe,Emerson,Hawthorne,
bythe
essayssponsored
bibliographical
whodeservedlandmark
theeightauthors
hecouldassume
GroupoftheModernLanguageAssociation,
American
Literature
that"doubtlessmostreaderswillagreethatat thistimeand forthepurposesof
Americanwriters."If one adds two
thisvolumetheyare themostimportant
andDickinson-Twain'suniqueness
andthenomitted-Howells
considered
figures
forhumor,Twain'sliterary
is stillevident.As a consequenceof thisreputation
Howells,Brander
inthebeginning
werenevertakenforgranted;
accomplishments
as a
WilliamLyonPhelps,andothershadtoinsistuponTwain'sstature
Matthews,
encouragmajorAmericannovelist.YetevenduringSamuelClemens'slifetime,
ingsignsof his risingstatusbeganto appear.
bestowedhonorary
degreesless freelythansome
In an era whenuniversities
onClemens;thefirst
ofthese,
doctorates
perhapsdo today,threeschoolsconferred
in 1901, produceda richlysymbolicevent:theresat Samuel
Yale University
borderstateand the
a productof a rough-and-tumble
Clemens,self-educated,
awardedbya university
strike-it-rich
FarWest,receivingthehighestdistinction
to thecolonialpoetJohnTrumbull.
whosecurriculum
had seemedconservative
The culturalrevolutionbetokenedby this ceremonywas probablyno more
thanwas theequallysuggestivefactthat
by thosein attendance
apprehended
Clemenshad feltcompelledto makehis adoptivehometheNew Englandcity
Inasmuchas Twainhad
Witshadflourished.
andtheConnecticut
whereTrumbull
regionswherehehadresidedpreviously-to
foundConnecticut-andthewestern
now
theAmericanliterary
forhis literature,
independence,
be suitablesettings
as it
completedattained,was merelybeingsolemnizedat thisYale proceeding,
A ReviewofResearchand Criticism,
ed. FloydStovall(New York:W.W.
Authors:
'EightAmerican
Norton,1956), vi.
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TheImportance
ofMarkTwain
31
at theUniversity
of Missouri(1902) and at
laterwouldbe in similarceremonies
OxfordUniversity
(1907).2
arrivedas well. Professor
RichardBurtondeclaredin 1904 that
Othertributes
Clemenswas the "one livingwriterof indisputablegenius" in the United
States.ThatsameyearClemenswas amongthefirst
sevenindividuals
selectedby
in theAmericanAcademyofArtsandLetters.The
secretballotformembership
othersixhonorees-including
authors
WilliamDean Howells,EdmundClarence
Stedman,andJohnHay-have neveragainbeenaccordedthatdegreeofpublic
esteem,norhavemostof thosewhomthesesevenpeoplethenelected,suchas
ThomasBaileyAldrichand CharlesEliot Norton.3
In 1899, BranderMatthews
hadclassedTwainwithCervantes
andMoliere,andthissortofaccolade,overthe
objectionsof certaindissentersin each succeedingdecade, has gainedmany
adherents.
DuringClemens'slifetime,
MatthewArnold,JohnNichol,andHenry
his mounting
Jameswere amongthe skepticsregarding
but their
reputation,
werebalancedbytheenthusiasm
ofcommentators
likeJoelChandler
reservations
Harris,who in 1908 called MarkTwain "our greatestwriterof fiction,"and
Howells,whotermedhim,memorably,
theLincolnof ourliterature.
As JayB.
Hubbellhas noted,Adventures
Finn and Twain's otherworks
of Huckleberry
foundadmirers
as eminentas RobertLouis Stevenson,
ThomasHardy,Andrew
Lang, and GeorgeBernardShaw.4
MarkTwain'sliterary
staturehas suffered,
fromtimeto time,
Nevertheless,
becauseof his predilection
forcomicforms.In 1920, mostnotably,Van Wyck
Brooksled his historicattackon Twain'scredentials
and achievements,
though
fromauthors,
andreaderselevatedTwainto
ensuingtestimonials
critics,teachers,
In thecategory
a towering
of
positionamongthemastersofAmericanliterature.
humor,
indeed,hissupremacy
todayis essentially
unassailable,yetJayB. Hubbell
observesthat
correctly
fortheliterary
criticMarkTwainposes two specialproblems.First,he was a great
andBrooksandothercriticswithlittletasteforhumorhavehadgreatdifficulty
humorist,
in assessingthevalueof his books. In thesecondplace, MarkTwainwas and stillis
themoderncriticswhoseemto valueonlythose
enormously
popular,andthisdisturbs
writers
whomtheyregardas alienatedfromsociety.This . . . is a mainreasonwhythey
havemadeso muchof his pessimism.'
2Morethanfifty
yearsago VernonLouis Parrington
discernedTwain'simportance
in thisregard:
"Here at lastwas . . . a nativewriter
thinking
his own thoughts,
usinghis own eyes,speakinghis
owndialect-everything
Europeanfallenaway,thelastshredoffeudalculture
gone,localandwestern
. . . Yet in spiteof a rareveinof humor,. . . he made his way slowlyto polite
yetcontinental.
recognition.
For yearshe was regardedby authoritative
criticsas littlemorethana buffoon,an
extravagant
witha broadstreakof westerncoarseness."See TheBeginnings
fun-maker
of Critical
Realismin America,1860-1920 (New York:Harcourt,Brace and World,1930), 86.
3Larzer
Ziffdiscussessomeoftheironiesofthiselectionceremony
inTheAmerican
1890's: Lifeand
Timesofa Lost Generation(New York:VikingPress, 1966), 345-47.
4JayB. Hubbell,WhoAretheMajor Writers?
A StudyoftheChangingLiterary
Canon (Durham,
N.C.: Duke Univ.Press,1972), 144.
5Ibid., 144.
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32
AmericanQuarterly
in
feelingsaboutTwain'smass popularity
Forthosewho harborambivalent
virtueis Twain'sapparent
vitalness
theUnitedStates,thenandnow,a redeeming
a style
hebequeathed
tothetwentieth
writers.
century
Demonstrably
toAmerican
less impededby outmoded
of prosethatspeaksto us almostcontemporarily,
for
thanthatofanyotherhumorist-orofvirtually
anywriter,
linguistic
locutions
as
as vibrantly
thatmatter-ofhisday.His flexiblevoiceevennowcomesthrough
recollections
to us insteadof to
he weredictating
thoseautobiographical
though
Miss Hobby.Thatmodulatedvoice
AlbertBigelowPaine and thestenographer
in his worksagain and again,untileventually
he came to
emergedeffectively
literature
was about,thathe
devicealonewaseverything
believethatthisnarrative
character
evenplot.
development,
dialect,manners,
coulddispensewithsetting,
witheliminating
theseotherelements,
oneby
experiment
He wouldprogressively
Hadleyburg"(1899) and "The
one, in storieslike "The Man That Corrupted
intheenchanting
talkofhisAutobiograph$30,000Bequest"(1904),culminating
butwhichcanbestbe viewed
oftenfaultedfortheirformlessness,
icalDictations,
form-a seriesofnewspaper-type
topical
as a reversion
toTwain'searliest,favored
intactand self-contained.
sketchesand occasionalcolumns,each perfectly
"oral" stylethatTwaindevelopedforhisprose,
Yetin spiteofthedistinctive
ofparodieslikethosethathavemimicked
therhetoric
hehasneverbeenthetarget
andFaulkner.Like these
James,Crane,Hemingway,
ofPoe, Cooper,Whitman,
seemwindy,excitable,or pompous.Yet in the
writers,
Twaincan momentarily
a flexiblestylethat
main,he succeededin findinga senseof balance,forging
of
and densityof meaningas well as thedisarmingfluidity
conveyssubtlety
ofTwain'sparagraphs
conversational
speech.One ofthelessmemorable
ordinary
ofhistravelnarratives,
FollowingtheEquator(1897), canstill
intheleastadmired
thesupplenessof his delivery:
illustrate
InEnglandanypersonbelowtheheirwhois caughtwitha rabbitinhispossessionmust
fineandimprisonment,
together
satisfactorily
explainhowitgotthere,orhe willsuffer
ofhispeerage;inBluff[,NewZealand],thecatfoundwitha rabbitinits
withextinction
lookstheotherway;thepersoncaught
possessiondoes nothavetoexplain-everybody
ofpeerage.Thisis a sure
withextinction
wouldsuffer
fineandimprisonment,
noticing
themoralfabricof a cat. Thirty
yearsfromnowtherewillnotbe a
wayto undermine
thereis nonetherenow. . . . All governments
are
moralcatinNewZealand.Somethink
in Englandtheyfinethepoacher,whereashe oughtto be
moreor less short-sighted:
banishedto New Zealand. New Zealandwouldpay his way,and give himwages.6
anda jab at
theoccasionalidiomaticexpression,
Hyperbole,
anthropomorphism,
itsultimate
inpassageslikethisone.However,
effectiveness
Englishlawareevident
itdeliversofa likablepersona'sactualspeech,daringl)
stemsfromtheimpression
Conn.: AmericanPublishing,1897), 285-86.
6MarkTwain,FollowingtheEquator(Hartford,
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TheImportance
ofMarkTwain
33
punctuated
withsemicolonsand structured
aroundparallelphrases,thenartfully
frozeninprint.Suchparagraphs
do notsimplyfoolus, as Hemingway's
dialogues
andmonologues
succeedindoing,intoerroneously
thatpeopleactually
supposing
speakEnglishthatway(mostexcerpts
fromHemingway's
novelsandshortstories
soundwoodenandclumsywhenreadaloud,despitetheverisimilitude
theyappear
toexudeon thepage). In Twain'scase, themajority
ofhistalesandessayscanbe
readorallywithoutembarrassment
to thereader;people maynottalkin such
carefully
crafted
unitsofpunctuation
andequipoise,buttherhythms
anddiction
are harmoniously
suitedto thecontextand subjectmatter.
Manyof MarkTwain'sverbaleffects,of course,dependeduponhis skillin
creatingthe formof addressforone dominantspeaker.Twain tinkeredwith
vernacular
approachesoverand overagain,oftenfindinghis way to workable
ofstoryandtone,andoncemanaging
combinations
toinventa boy'smonologue
thatensuredhis place in all studiesof fictionalnarrative.He alwayshad an
affection
forthis"aural" elementin literary
works,rehearsing
oralreadingsof
RobertBrowning'sversemonologuesand RudyardKipling'sballads;his own
fiction
featured
loquaciousfigures
likeSimonWheeler,UncleMumford,
Colonel
Sellers,andevenKingLeopold.InA TrampAbroad(1880), thecomicmodelfor
travelers
like Paul Theroux,whichhelpsthemchuckleat inconveniences
and
teachesthemto acknowledgeand cherishtheirinescapableattitudes
of cultural
thenarrator
superiority,
givestheimpression
of an oralmanner.To fullysavor
Twain'sjoke in chaptertwenty-five
of thatwork,however,a readerneeds to
reviewa typicalaccountofchamois-hunting
thatappearedinTwain'sday;thenthe
subversive
natureof Twain'sassaulton whatHenryNash Smithhas variously
termed"genteel bombast," "bookish phrases," "cliches of refinement
and ideality,"and "decadent high cultureof the nineteenth
century"also
comesintofocus.7Thefollowing
description
appearedina Philadelphia
periodical
a littlemorethana decadebeforeTwainwroteA TrampAbroad;I quoteonlya few
sentences:
The mostcourageousinhabitants
oftheAlpstakea particular
pleasurein lookingfor
andkillingthechamoisinthewildsofthehighest
mountains.
Greatcourage,presenceof
mindand perseverance
is wantedin chamoishunting.Withthethick-soled
shoes,the
iron-tipped
stick,thepointedhat,ornamented
witha chamoisbeard,and thedoublebarrelrifle,the hunterstartsin the evening... to surprisethe chamoisat their
pasturages.... Oftenthickfogscomeup, so thathe can see buta fewfeetahead;or a
furious
breaksout,thatthreatens
tempest
toprecipitate
thehunter
intotheabyss.It is no
wonder
thatchamois-hunters
losetheirlivesinfalling
downa gapintheice,ora precipice;
otherinhabitants
and,nevertheless,
of theAlps undertake
thisdangerouschase.8
7HenryNash Smith,Mark Twain: The Developmentof a Writer(Cambridge:HarvardUniv.
Press/Belknap
Press, 1962), 16, 17, 41; Smith,Democracyand theNovel: PopularResistanceto
Classic AmericanWriters
(New York:OxfordUniv.Press,1978), 119.
8"ChamoisHuntingin theAlps" [anonymous],
SaturdayNight[Philadelphial,
7 Dec. 1867, 7.
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34
AmericanQuarterly
Twain's versionof these heroics in A TrampAbroad, a book thatis currently
undervaluedand oftenoutofprint,comicallyexpatiateson theverminthatinfested
his Swiss hotels:
abouttheSwisschamoisandthe
nonsensehas beenwritten
A greatdeal ofromantic
perilsof huntingit, whereasthetruthis thateven womenand childrenhuntit, and
is goingon all thetime,dayandnight,
huntsit;thehunting
fearlessly;
indeed,everybody
to huntit witha gun;veryfewpeopledo
in bed and outof it. It is poeticfoolishness
ina fanciful
andpicturesque
alwaysdressupthechamoishunter
that.. . . Theromancers
anycostumeatall.
thebestwaytohuntthisgameis todo itwithout
whereas
costume,
aboutitis
whichhasbeenwritten
is a humbugineveryway,andeverything
Thecreature
It was no pleasureto me to findthechamoisout,forhe had
sentimental
exaggeration.
beenone ofmypetillusions;all ofmylifeithadbeenmydreamtosee himinhisnative
clifftocliff.Itis
sportofchasinghimfrom
wildssomeday,andengageintheadventurous
inhimandrespect
thereader'sdelight
nopleasuretometoexposehim,now,anddestroy
forhim,butstillit mustbe done.9
His astonishingseries of paired opposites in thispassage, his scoffingattackon
stilted"romanticnonsense," his undeterredinsistenceupon a mistakenidentification, his confusionof mightyexploits witheverydaynuisances-we recognize
theseas hallmarksof Twain's comic pose. They enabled him to exploitEuropean
guides, Turkishcoffee,and Turkishbaths(InnocentsAbroad); stagecoach-travel,
WalterScott,
AmericanIndians, and horse-auctions(RoughingIt); river-piloting,
and Indian legends (Life on the Mississippi), and countless othermaterialsthat
otherwritersseldom turnedto theiradvantage.
Yet in termsof mosttechniquesthatTwain employed,he was exemplaryrather
than unprecedented.Certainly "The Celebrated JumpingFrog" (1865), with
its easily distractedmonologist and his anecdote about the illness of Parson
Walker's wife ("'it seemed as if theywarn'tgoing to save her"), is reminiscent
of theWidow Bedott's ramblingaccountsof herfamilyand neighbors,especially
the recollectionsof her deceased husband Hezekiah:
factthatwhenthatmandiedhe hadentseena welldayin
Whyitsan onaccountable
I shouldent
desireto
whenhewasmarried
andforfiveorsixyearafter
fifteen
year,though
manthanwhathewas. ButthetimeI'm speakin'ofhe'dbeenouto' health
see a ruggeder
timeI eversee
nighupontenyear,and 0 dearsakes!howhe hadalteredsincethefirst
I'd no idee
him!Thatwas toa quiltin'toSquireSmith'sa spellaforeSallywas married.
She'd benkeepin'
to Sam Pendergrass.
thenthatSal Smithwas a gwineto be married
a year,andeverybodysaid thatwas a settled
companywithMose Hewlitt,forbetter'n
thing,and lo and behold!all of a suddingshe up and tookSam Pendergrass.'0
9MarkTwain,A TrampAbroad,Author'sNationalEd., 2 vols. (New York:HarperandBrothers,
1907), 1, 245-46.
The WidowBedottPapers (1856), rpt. in WalterBlair's Native
"FrancesMiriamWhitcher,
AmericanHumor(1937; rpt.New York:Chandler,1960), 271-72.
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ofMarkTwain
TheImportance
35
andfriendship,
withits
Inthishodpodgeofgossipydetailsabouthealth,marriage,
speechandtheearnest,candidtoneofaddress,we arealready
chatty,
countrified
SimonWheeler'syarn,and also to
close to thePikeCountydialectof garrulous
old ram:
efforts
to narrate
thestoryofhisgrandfather's
JimBlaine'sextravagant
Seth Green was prob'lythe pick of the flock;he marrieda Wilkerson-Sarah
thatwas everraisedinold
shewas-one ofthelikeliestheifers
Wilkerson-goodcretur,
saidthatknowedher.She couldhefta bar'lofflouras easyas I can
everybody
Stoddard,
Humph!WhenSile Hawkins
it!Independent?
flirt
a flapjack.Andspin?Don'tmention
come a-browsing
aroundher,she let himknowthatforall his tinhe couldn'ttrotin
harnessalongsideof her."
trappedinto
The comicplight,on theotherhand,of theunwillinglistener,
andgradually
enmeshedin
hearingdetailsaboutwhichhe simplyhas no interest
if
in
web
of
a
fresh
reliable
predicament
thespreading
factandanecdote,proved
he
torture
captive
hearer's
In
its
drollest
variants
dramatizes
the
Twain'sfiction.
who "frames"theSimon
genteelnarrator
withtendersolicitude.The offended
construesthe
of
"The
Celebrated
Wheelerstory
Jumping
Frog" indignantly
reminiscence
"to boreme to deathwithsome exasperating
tale as an attempt
. . .as longandas tediousas itshouldbe uselesstome," andhisfateis sharedby
in "AboutBarbers"(1871), whoemphasizesthathe
theMarkTwaincharacter
train,thensitsinagony
merely
wantsa quickshaveso thathecancatcha noontime
theprototype
forRingLardner'sdensebarberin
whiletheloose-tongued
barber,
and was about to
"Haircut," "latheredone side of my face thoroughly,
hisattention,
andherantothewindow
whena dog-fight
attracted
lathertheother,
on theresultinbetswiththeother
andstayedandsaw itout,losingtwoshillings
Thatlastcomment
suggests
barbers,a thingwhichgave me greatsatisfaction."
howmuchTwaincomestodetestthisprating
personwho,as itturnsout,ownsa
of a six-ounce
dog himself,and "strungout an accountof the achievements
ofhistillI heardthewhistlesblowfornoon,andknewI was
blackandtanterrier
fiveminutestoo late forthetrain. .
.
. The barberfelldown and died of apoplexy
twohourslater.I am waitingovera dayformyrevenge-I amgoingtoattendhis
ofA TrampAbroad,thesituation
funeral."'2In chaptertwenty-six
humorously
evokestheharanguethatColeridge'sWeddingGuestendures:theWashington
him,
Rileypushesa captive"againstan ironfence,buttonholed
correspondent
andproceededtounfoldthe
himwithhiseye,liketheancientmariner,"
fastened
in theera of AndrewJackson.'3
claim-seeker
storyof a government
thetalkativenarrator's
audienceas victim,
Thishabitualgambitof depicting
P. Rogersand Paul Baender,The Worksof MarkTwain
"MarkTwain,RoughingIt, ed. Franklin
Series(Berkeley:Univ.of CaliforniaPress,1972), 345.
Conn.:
'2MarkTwain, "About Barbers,"in Mark Twain'sSketches,New and Old (Hartford,
AmericanPublishing,1875), 259-61.
'3Twain,A TrampAbroad,I, 270.
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AmericanQuarterly
36
of(even
thathe toohasbeentakenadvantage
thereadertoreflect
thuscompelling
uses
one ofthecomprehensive Twain
he has enjoyedthetale),represents
though
voices he fashioned.Whyhe succeededat thismore
made of the vernacular
is stilla matterfor
humorists
lastinglyand appealinglythanhis contemporary
ErnestEarnestascribesTwain's
connection,
discussion.In a slightlydifferent
inhisown
which
hewascriticized
practicefor
ofstyletothepublishing
originality
Mark
that
possiblyhas relevancehere:"One reason
day,and thisexplanation
American
in
the
use
of
colloquial
Twainhad been able to breaknew ground
press,thatis through
Englishwas thathe publishedhisbooksin thesubscription
He
whosesalesmentookordersfromdoortodoor. didthisnotinorder
publishers
he
editorsbutsimplybecausehethought
ofconservative
toescapetherestrictions
could make more money. .
.
. The unsophisticatedpublic who patronizedthe
was less squeamishthantheAnglophileeditors,critics,
publishers
subscription
and professorsof literature."HenryNash Smithadds: "This [subscription
tofreehimself
a wisedecision.It was a wayforthewriter
method]was probably
fromthedominantliteraryconventions. .
.
. He was forcedto inventa new form
and a new stylein whichto expresshimself.'4
to availhimself
ofthe
It is truethatMarkTwainwas one ofthefewhumorists
method.Yetthisin itself
ofthesubscription-canvassing
awesomesalesapparatus
accountforwhyGeorgeAde's cleverfablesandstories-eventhe
cannotentirely
marvelous"Dubley, '89," thatamusingaccountof an alumnus'sinappropriate
today,along
forgotten
speechat a dinneroftheBeverlyalumni-arepractically
likePetrocomedians
of
other
of scores
literary
withthehumorous
productions
in
thefield
Twain
while
paramount
reigns
leumV. NasbyandRobertJ.Burdette,
wrote
their
materials
the
and
others
primarily
of Americancomedy.GeorgeAde
forspecificnewspapers(and newspapersyndicates)-theChicagoRecord,the
Daily Hawk Eye-as Twaindid at thecomToledoBlade, and theBurlington
he was eventuallyable to
of
his
writingcareer,an arrangement
mencement
columnsfora pubtheir
wits
collected
the
disparate
abandon.When newspaper
devices
and
lackedgenuine
on
relied
repetitious
book
often
lisher,theresulting
and
Other
Lies
Bill
(1882), for
Liars,
Forty
coherenceand development. Nye's
aim
at
Ute
biased
Mormons,
in
its
Taking
is
way.
entertaining
example, certainly
the
and
assassin
Guiteau,
bandits,
editors,
newspaper
andSiouxIndians,Chinese,
to advantage.The prefaceconand malapropism
Nye employsunderstatement
cedes: "There is a tacit admission . . . by the author that some little trifling
andrushofpreparafalsehoods
mayhavecreptintothework,owingtothehurry
onthepartofthosewhoarementioned
tion.. . . I hopetherewillbe noill-feeling
personally. . . , and who are still alive, and comparativelyvigorous." A dog
Intellectuals
(NewYork:NewYork
ofAmerican
Earnest,TheSingleVision:TheAlienation
'4Ernest
Univ.Press,1970), 48-49; Smith,Democracyand theNovel, 107.
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ofMarkTwain
TheImportance
37
relatesforchildrentheadvenstoryin thebook, "Entomologist,"divertingly
feetofa lariat,obliginghismastertobuy
dogthatatefifteen
turesofa Thurberian
somesoftplasterofParis,leavinga
diesafter
devouring
thatarticle;thedogfinally
theepitaph,"He bit
plastercast of himself("interiorview") and prompting
plug hatsis
offmorethanhe could chew." Nye's remarkaboutfashion-plate
used
to hanga
"In former
yearsthey
of Twain'sexaggerations:
worthy
entirely
thatit
after
awhile
they
found
manwhoworea plughatwestoftheMissouri,but
him
chase
it
over
the
let
wear
it,
and
to
punishment
was a morecruelandhorrible
it
and
lammed
and
with
it,
it
breezecaught up
toyed
whenthefrolicsome
foot-hills
All
the
the
miscellaneous
nature
broad
brow
of
Laramie
Peak."
same,
againstthe
of FortyLiars, despiteits westernflavorof talltalesand "lies," suggeststhe
drawbacksof manysuchpublications.'5
The factis, the majorityof Americanhumorists-asJoelChandlerHarris
equipped
provedwithSisterJane(1896) andGabrielTolliver(I1902)-werebetter
of
anecdotes
collection
and
or
a
forthesquib,thesketch,thestory, heterogeneous
16
for
Fortunately
of
satire
and
plot.
fictional
inventions
thanextended
yamsrather
from
hoax
the
moving
genres,
with
numerous
intrepidly
experimented
Twain,he
and burlesqueto the travelsketch,the shortstory,the polemicalessay, the
monologue,and thenovel;he was capable, as it turnedout, of adequately(if
efforts
thatneeded
his talentsforthepurposeof lengthier
converting
haltingly)
minor
authorof
voluminously;
any
of
In
he
wrote
control
form.
addition,
greater
layclaimto even
estatecouldsuccessfully
whoseliterary
thenineteenth
century
newrespectandwould
be granted
wouldinstantly
one tenthofTwain'swritings
in classroomtextbooks.
dulybe inserted
withThe Mysterious
Stranger(1916), "The
fascination
Our contemporary
War Prayer"(1923), and otherfictionand essays fromMark Twain's later
editorsofpreviousgenerationsfromthetasteofanthology
phase-a departure
hismoodsand
indicates
thatmodemreadersadmireTwain'scourageinregistering
approveof thefactthathis religiousbeliefs,social philosophies,and literary
"periods" of his outlook.As a
mustbe studiedin termsof different
techniques
honestand complex.The truthis, his late
consequence,he seemsengagingly
ofourrecentangrydecades.
haveaccordedwiththetemper
polemicsanddiatribes
Thereis an ironyhere,because,totakeone instance,SamuelClemenscouldnot
treatise
WhatIs Man? (written
hisfavorite
tocopyright
philosophical
bringhimself
"EdgarW. Nye,FortyLiars, and OtherLies (Chicago:Belford,Clark,1882), 6, 199, 223.
'6DavidE. E. Sloane notes,forexample,that"aftertheCivil War,[OrpheusC.] Kerr,likethe
others,triedto writesustainedfiction.The handfulof novelshe producedwere only modestly
sustainedfictionin
successful."WhenthefamousArtemusWarddied, Ward"had notattempted
untapped
untilthesuccessesof
ofAmerican
humorinthatarearemained
anyform,
andthepossibilities
Comedian(BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniv.Press,
MarkTwain." See MarkTwainas a Literary
1979), 24, 44.
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38
AmericanQuarterly
in 1898,publishedin 1906)inhisownname,letalonesignthetitlepage.17Itwas
notthatanyrealharmcould come to thedistinguished
authorexpressing
these
viewsabouthumanconduct-rather,
his misgivings
deterministic
involvedthe
heoftendisplayed
aboutthepublicimagehehadcreated,thatvenerated
insecurity
andinfallibly
forso manyyears.
MarkTwainpersonahe hadprojectedskillfully
Clemensthemanwas at oddswithTwaintheimagein theirfinalyears,andthis
tensionbetweentheprivateandthepublicfigure,histragicandcomicqualities,
eversince. Alice
has becomethedominantissue in MarkTwaincommentary
in August,1909, whenshe visited
Hegan Rice was shockedand embarrassed
RichardWatsonGilderand listenedto Clemenslambastingthe orderof the
ofMr.Gilderleading
universe;latershe wrote,"I havean amusingrecollection
intothehouseon one ofthoseoccasions,andwhispering,
meprotectingly
'Don't
listento thatblasphemous
and unhappyold man!""18 Yet thedisgustof Twain's
associateswentbeyondthepall he could cast on a dinnerparty.Theyand his
humorist
to concludehis lifewith
audienceat largewantedAmerica'sforemost
to setan example
goodcheer-to inspireall ofus in ourtrudging
circumstances,
humorous
frommortalexistence.No doubttheyhoped
fortheproperly
departure
foran upbeatexitsuchas (thesupposedlycarefree,
butactuallycrusty)William
theAssociatedPresstoreport,
Saroyantriedtosupplyin 1981whenhetelephoned
inadvance,hisowndemise;withcheekyaplomb,theauthorofThe
onlyslightly
TimeofOurLifeexpressednonchalant
aboutthesequenceofsensations
curiosity
he was soon to undergo.
MarkTwain'smasktrembled
a bittowardtheend,and he was notuniformly
Yet he had theconsolationofknowingthat
capableofjocularpronouncements.
his competitors
in thefieldof comedy,had indeedseta new
he had outstripped
forhismasspopularity.
recordof longevity
Whenhe cameto assessthereasons
it to theimpatiencewith
behindthisphenomenalsuccess,he wouldattribute
humanfoiblesthathe manifested
moreand moreobsessivelyafter1895. His
definitive
datesfrom1906, whenTwaindictateda screedabouthis
explanation
fellowhumorists
thathas becomewell knownto literary
historians.
Glancing
thecontentsof an anthologyof Americanhumorthathe had helped
through
compilenearlytwenty
yearsearlier,MarkTwain'sLibraryofHumor,'9
he concludedon July13, 1906, thatthe book was now "a cemetery"and gloated
about his own survivalin contrastto the literaryexpirationof his many
contemporaries:
"Privatesecretary
Isabel V. Lyonrecordedon 9 May 1906: "It was thisday thatMr. Clemens
gavetheGospelMs. to Mr.FrankDoubledayto taketo startin on thepublishing
of 250 copiestobe
ontheDeVinnepress;nottobe published
inMr.Clemens'sname,noteventobe copyrighted
in
printed
hisname."See Lyon'sjournalintheHumanities
ResearchCenter,
Univ.ofTexasatAustin;textquoted
fromLaurieLentz's "Mark Twainin 1906: An Editionof SelectedExtractsfromIsabel V. Lyon's
Journal,"ResourcesforAmericanLiteraryStudy,11 (Spring1981), 31.
"Alice HeganRice, TheInkyWay(New York:Appleton-Century,
1940), 80.
'9MarkTwain'sLibraryofHumor,ed. SamuelL. Clemens[alsoWilliamDean HowellsandCharles
HopkinsClark](New York:CharlesL. Webster,1888).
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TheImportance
ofMarkTwain
39
Eachandeveryone
humorists.
otherAmerican
I havehadforcompany
seventy-eight
roseinmytime,becameconspicuousandpopular,andbyandbyvanished.. . . Thereis
whoseeye wouldlightwith
yearsof age in thecountry
probablynota youthof fifteen
names.
recognition
at thementionof anyone of theseventy-eight
Alludingto Nasby,Ward,Strauss,Derby,Burdette,Perkins,Kerr,O'Brien,
Billings,and the DanburyNews Man, he observedthattheir"writingsand
mouthbutarenowheardofno moreandareno
sayingswereonceineverybody's
assertionthat(in his opinion)
longermentioned."Thenhe madetheoft-quoted
accountedforhis endurance:
humorists.
. . . Oftenitis merely
Becausetheyweremerely
Whyhavetheyperished?
anoddtrickofspeechandofspelling,as inthecase ofWardandBillingsandNasby .
the fashionpasses and the famealong withit. . . Humormustnot
and presently
preach,butitmustdo bothifitwouldlive
teach,anditmustnotprofessedly
professedly
I meanthirty
years.... I havealwayspreached.Thatis thereason
forever.
By forever,
thesermonforthesakeofthehumor.
thatI havelastedthirty
years.. . . I wasnotwriting
thesermon
justthesame. . . . I am sayingthesevainthingsinthis
I shouldhavewritten
frankwaybecauseI am a dead personspeakingfromthegrave.11
and
thisis compellingand revelatory
Like muchof Twain'sautobiography,
madeforty
yearsearlier(ina letter
quotable;foronething,itrecallshisdeclaration
written
fromSanFranciscotoOrionandMollieClemensonOctober19, 1865)that
the prospectof becominga preacher,but,lacking"the
he had contemplated
necessarystockin trade-i.e., religion,"had yieldedto "a 'call' to literature,
of 1906is notaltogether
as
ofa low order-i.e., humorous."'Yetthestatement
trueas its currency
todaywould imply.The volumeto whichTwain adverts
This is a minor
authors,not seventy-eight.
containsspecimensfromforty-six
who
however;without
questionthebookcollectedmostof thehumorists
matter,
addedotherswhohadappearedon
wereknownbythe1880s,andTwainmentally
is the overlookedfact
the scene in the succeedingdecades. More significant
V. Nasby,JoshBillings,and evenArtemus
Ward
likePetroleum
thathumorists
in theirwritings.
Whether
criticizing
wereundeniably-andfrequently-serious
or ridiculinghumanavarice,theywere scarcelythe "phunny
draft-dodgers
Professor
BromWeber
here.Moreover,
phellows"whomMarkTwaincaricatures
who electedto don
and othershave pointedout thattheCivil War humorists
"dialectal [sic] masks of semiliterates,"dependingon "quasi-phonetic
oreyedialectas itis termed
forerunners
bylinguists,"wereinventive
misspelling,
of "orthographic
rearrangement."22
of realismbecauseof thisconvention
20Mark
TwaininEruption,ed. BernardDeVoto(New York:HarperandBrothers,
1940),201-03.
2'Quotedin Justin
Kaplan'sMr. Clemensand MarkTwain:A Biography(New York:Simonand
Schuster,1966), 14.
22See,forinstance,BromWeber,"The Misspellers,"in The ComicImaginationin American
Literature,
ed. Louis D. Rubin,Jr.(New Brunswick,
N.J.: RutgersUniv.Press,1973), 128-35.
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40
AmericanQuarterly
can be shownto have lackedthe
frequently
Then,too, Twain'sown writings
Few ofhis
essentialfordurability.
thathe citesas purportedly
moraldidacticism
earlytales and sketchesdisplayexamplesof such "preaching."How much
seriousnessare we supposedto discern,forexample,in his sketchtitled"The
complainsthatFranklin's
LateBenjaminFranklin"(1870), inwhichthenarrator
maximabout "early to bed and earlyto rise" broughton his "presentstate
of generaldebility"?"My parentsused to have me up beforenine o'clock
whenI was a boy,he avers."If theyhad letme take
in themorning
sometimes
mynaturalrestwherewouldI have been now? Keepingstore,no doubt,and
respectedby all." In thesame sketchhe scoffsbecauseFranklin"was always
proudof tellinghow he enteredPhiladelphiaforthe firsttime,withnothing
inhispocketandfourrollsofbreadunderhisarm.
intheworldbuttwoshillings
it was nothing.Anybody
But really,whenyou come to examineit critically,
could have done it.' '23 It is similarlydifficultto detectthe "sermon" in
"The Celebrated JumpingFrog," "Jim Wolfe and the Tom-Cats,"
Old Ram," "An Encounterwith an
"Jim Blaine and His Grandfather's
"JimBaker'sBluejayYarn," and dozensof othertales.
Interviewer,"
in 1906mainlyoftheliterary
workshehad
Thefactis,MarkTwainwasthinking
he
in
mind
the
strident
indictments
time.
also
had
that
Perhaps
at
beenpublishing
toa dismal
He
had
humor
the
omitted
in
Equator
(1897).
Following
thatappeared
"The
and
Czar's
(1905),
Soliloquy"
in
"A
Tale"
(1903),
Dog's
extent
in
Yet
for
be
circulated
would
many
years
1906).
August
Whatis Man? (which
becauseof
atface-value,
principally
mostcriticshavetakenTwain'sself-analysis
he
is
in
American
preeminent
unquestionably
humor;
ranking
his prestigious
toneofhis
whomhe namesanddismisses.Also, thefervent
amongthehumorists
to look behindhis
professeddedicationto "preaching"allaysthe inclination
Twainis conceptualized
by teachersand
words.Finally,and mostimportant,
intermsofthesinglenovelofhisthattheymostteachandstudy,
criticsprimarily
Finn (1885).There Mark Twain did seem to be
Adventures
of Huckleberry
wereaders
comeaway
andsocialbehavior;
lessonsabouthumannature
inculcating
fromthatbook feelingthatwe have learneda good deal morethanHuck has
theirgreed,and their
our fellowhumanbeings,theirgullibility,
concerning
ofthisnovelhascolored
andself-respect.
Theprominence
forfellowship
strivings
in 1906,andthelatter
credodoesnot
toTwain'sappraisalofhimself
ourresponses
merittheacceptanceithas gained.Afterall, he madethesesweepinggeneralizaofhisown
he knew,andabouttheentirety
tionsabouteveryAmericanhumorist
humor-andtheseopinionsaresimplythefondwishesofan elderlyauthorrather
truth.
thanhistorical
scholarsfor
thathaveengrossed
do raisequestions
Twain'sreflections,
however,
tothesetopics
ofyears.Forthemostpart,thosewhohavegiventhought
a number
Twain,"The Late BenjaminFranklin,"in MarkTwain'sSketches,New and Old, 277.
23Mark
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TheImportance
ofMarkTwain
41
have agreedthatTwainis superiorto his brethren,
beingpossiblytheleading
humorist
whomtheUnitedStateshas producedinanycentury;
buttheypointout
thathis favorite
ploys-understatement,
blackdialect,exaggeration,
burlesque,
incongruity,
deadpanvernacular,
and others-wereused by his contemporaries
andthosewhoprecededthem.JamesM. Cox declaresof A.B. Longstreet,
J.J.
Hooper,J.G. Baldwin,T.B. Thorpe,HenryClay Lewis, and G.W. Harris:
"All thesehumorists
mighthave been forgotten
had notMarkTwain,whose
whole geniuswas rootedin the [Southern]tradition,
made his way intothe
dominant
culture."M. ThomasInge adds: "The importance
of theworkof the
groupof writers
knownas the Southwestern
Humoriststo the mainstream
of
Americanliterature
receivedonlyslightcriticalrecognition
untilitwas observed
thatitfurnished
a literary
forandinfluenced
background
muchofthewritings
of
MarkTwain."24Indeed,theseearlySouthernhumorists'
fictionis virtually
as
inaccessibleandbaffling
tomostAmerican
readerstodayas an unglossedpageof
Shakespeare's
history
plays;thedialects,folkways,
costumes,oaths,drinks,
and
rompsofSutLovingood,SimonSuggs,andotherrusticcharacters
seemas strange
andintimidating
tomanypresent-day
students
as thespeechandbehavior
ofPrince
Hal and Falstaff.25
Still,ephemeralSouthernmaterialshad theirplace in Mark
Twain'sdevelopment;
ithasoftenbeenpointedout,forexample,thatTwain'sfirst
famousstoryaboutthejumpingfrogwas formerly
an oralanecdotein theOld
Southwestern
tradition
of humor,thatits "frame"narrator
boreresemblances
tothegentlemen
whointroduced
stories
byThorpe,Longstreet,
andothers,
andthat
itsdialectrestson perhapsforty
yearsof written
dialecthumor.26
Mark Twain also formedpartof an even largertradition,
thatof "rural
humor,"in thecompanyof JosiahAllen'swife(MariettaHolley),theDanbury
News Man (JamesBailey), RobertBurdette,Bill Nye (EdgarW. Nye), Max
Adeler(CharlesHeberClark),M. Quad (CharlesB. Lewis),andPeck'sBad Boy
that "there is no. . .
(George WilburPeck). C. CarrollHollis, admitting
Rabelais,noCervantes,. . . exceptforMarkTwain"amongtheruralcomedians,
asks, "Why is it thenthatClemensis remembered
and Nye and the others
He answersthat,amongotheradvantages,
MarkTwain'ssubjectsdid
forgotten?"
not date so quickly.This pointespeciallyis worthnoting.Lewis Leary has
thatmuchof OliverWendellHolmes's "humoris so topicalthat,
remarked
unlikehis one-horseshay,it failedevento outliveits century,"and Louis B.
Wright
has stressedsomething
thatwe all knowintuitively:
"Humoris a very
24James
M. Cox, "Humorof theOld Southwest,"in Rubin,ed., The ComicImagination,112;
M. ThomasInge,ed., TheFrontier
Humorists:
CriticalViews(Hamden,Conn.:Archon,1975),266.
251nfact,therehasbeena recent
attempt
tosalvageselectednineteenth-century
humorous
storiesby
preparing
"modernizedtexts," in The Mirthof a Nation:America'sGreatDialect Humor,ed.
WalterBlairand RavenI. McDavid, Jr.(Minneapolis:Univ.of MinnesotaPress,1983).
26See,forinstance,
Kenneth
S. Lynn,ed., TheComicTradition
inAmerica:AnAnthology
(London:
VictorGollancz,1958), 335.
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AmericanQuarterly
42
without
anyfootseemsfunny
MarkTwain,however,
commodity."27
perishable
contexts(as CharlesNeider
political,and literary
thehistorical,
notessupplying
editionsofTwain'swritwithhisscissors-and-paste
demonstrated
has repeatedly
ings).Humanresponsesremainthesame,evenwhencustomsalter;thesexually
("I was hot,vexed,confused,
ofkidglovesin Gibraltar
purchaser
embarrassed
interest
inthe
butstillhappy;butI hatedtheotherboysfortakingsuchanabsorbing
whenever
we readersopen
proceedings")is everamusingforhis mortification
this
Abroad(1869). Beyonderoticinnuendoes,
chaptersevenof TheInnocents
and
toall thatis foreign,
complicated,
reaction
theAmerican
fullytypifies
narrator
assuredlyelegant.
Equallytimelessis theanecdoteinRoughingIt abouttheliarnamedMarkiss
to
determined
whomMarkTwainmeton theislandofMaui,a mancompulsively
storywiththetale of his own smokingchimney,
top everyconversationalist's
untilhe acquiressucha reputation
employer,
hugetree,fasthorse,parsimonious
thata coroner'sjury refusesto believeMarkiss'shandwritten
formendacity
suicidenote,despiteeveryevidencethathe has hangedhimself,and returns
a verdictof "death 'by thehandsof somepersonor personsunknown."'This
ruinsMarkTwain'sstayon theisland,he wouldhaveus suppose,
lyingcharacter
how easily
abroador at home, illustrates
and indeedeverysuch encounter,
is invariably
grateful
naivetecanbe takenadvantage
of;buthisnarrator
American
fortheeducatingexperience.In Honolulu,to pick an example,he luxuriates
bananas,mangoes,guavas,
ofediblefruits-oranges,
pineapples,
intheabundance
melons:
I thought
weremadetoeat,butthatwasprobably
tamarinds
Thenthereis thetamarind.
sourthatyear.They
nottheidea. I ateseveral,anditseemedtomethattheywererather
of a tomato,and I had to takemy
pursedup mylips,tilltheyresembledthestem-end
hours.Theysharpened
myteethtillI could
a quill fortwenty-four
sustenance
through
haveshavedwiththem,andgavethema "wireedge" thatI was afraidwouldstay;but
a citizensaid "no, it will come offwhentheenameldoes"-which was comforting,
eattamarinds-but
thatonlystrangers
theyonlyeatthem
atanyrate.I found,afterward,
once.28
hiswaytotheforefront
of
MarkTwainshouldered
Bymeansofsuchstrategems,
boldlyand
fromthemainbodyof thosewriters
comedians,emerging
literary
Yet reasonscan be foundelsewherethanin hispowersofabsolute
permanently.
thantherestbymoreskillfully
blendingandutilizing
He faredbetter
originality.
not
Twain'swritings,
thattheywerealreadyemploying.
therangeoftechniques
Century,"Lewis Leary, "Wash27C. CarrollHollis, "Rural Humorof the Late Nineteenth
ingtonIrving,"and Louis B. Wright,"Human Comedyin EarlyAmerica,"in Rubin,ed., The
ComicImagination,170, 174, 176, 116, 21.
28Twain,
RoughingIt, 407.
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The Importanceof Mark Twain
43
forAmerican
havebecometheessentialgrammar
theirs,
comicdevicessuchas the
deadpanstyleand ironicunderstatement.
inoral-sounding
What,then,besidesMarkTwain'smastery
ofa newdimension
hischiefinnovations?
Firstandforemost,
prose,constitute
LelandKrauthseems
insingling
correct
outthewayTwainalteredoneofthetacticsofOld Southwestern
humor:"he changedthe frame,thatstructural
divisionbetweenthe conventionalgentleman
narrator
andhisvulgarheroeswhichcreateda separation
between
theauthor'sworldoforder,reason,andmorality,
andtheactor'slifeofdisorder,
Twaineliminated
thisdivision."29
violence,andamorality.
Krauthis referring
to
the vernacularvoice of Huckleberry
Finn,but HenryNash Smithgives this
deductiona widerapplication:
The straight
character
speaksin correct,evenpedanticor pompouslanguagewhich
contrasts
buthighly
vividlywiththeincorrect
coloredspeechofthebackwoodscharacter.
In MarkTwain'sbestwriting
ofcourseAdventures
(including
ofHuckleberry
Finn)the
vernacular
spokesman
takesoverthenarrative
thestraight
character
entirely;
disappears
hispresencecan stillbe feltbehindthescenesor beneaththesurface,the
andalthough
character
speechof thevernacular
becomestheonlyavailablenarrative
medium.30
Twaintriedout composite"voices" in some of his earlynewspapersketches;
in a piece titled"The Receptionat thePresident's"(1870), forinstance,his
visitorfromtheNevadasagebrushwho,intent
personais a volubleWashington
upon describingdesertscenes and personagesto PresidentUlyssesS. Grant,
impedesa statelyprocessionat theWhiteHouse (anothercase of a storyteller's
whenangrypeoplein the
descentupona cornered
listener).Growingindignant
line begin pressingagainsthim frombehind,the desertdenizenwhirlsand
a haplessmanathisrearwhois beingcrushedbythegrowling
confronts
mob;in
dictionhe reprimands
theinnocent,
high-toned,
stuffy
fellow:"My
unoffending
friend,
yourconductgrievesmetotheheart.A dozentimesatleastyourunseemly
I am holdingwiththe
withtheconversation
crowdinghas seriouslyinterfered
andifthethingoccursagainI shalltakemyhatandleavethepremises."
President,
Yet it is the meek-looking
who retortswith
man, amazed at such effrontery,
authentic
colloquialspeech:"I wishto themischief
youwould!Wheredid you
thatyou'vegottheunutterable
comefromanyway,
cheekto spreadyourself
here
andkeepfifteen
hundred
halfanhourtoshakehandswith
peoplestanding
waiting
thePresident?"'"
likeHankMorganwouldbe
Later,ofcourse,Twain'screations
29LelandKrauth,"Mark Twain:The Victorianof Southwestern
Humor,"AmericanLiterature,
54 (1982), 377.
30Smith,
Democracyand theNovel,108. See also Kenneth
S. Lynn,MarkTwainand Southwestern
Humor(Boston:Little,Brown,1959), 148.
3'Mark Twain,"The Receptionat thePresident's,"rpt.in Mark Twain:Lifeas I Find It, ed.
CharlesNeider(GardenCity,N.Y.: HanoverHouse, 1961), 118.
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44
AmericanQuarterly
someofthe
able to speakan animated,
slangybrandofEnglishwhileexpressing
for
was a significant
accomplishment
author'sintellectual
beliefs.Thisevolution
theOld SouthAmerican
humor,
andintheprocessMarkTwaincapablymodified
ern traditionof regional"dialect" untilits tone, smoothedand tempered,
For thesecontributions
alone, his worksmerit
became"vernacular"instead.32
thathave ensuredtheir
special attention.
Yet theyhave othercharacteristics
importance
to a laterage.
producOne of thesetraitsis thetremendous
rangeof MarkTwain'sliterary
he triedhis handat numerous
tions.Duringa careerspanninghalfa century,
includingdetectivefiction,scatology,
categoriesand subgenresof literature,
ofhisenormous
andpoliticalpamphlets.
The diversity
maxims,sciencefiction,
if
hadlackedquality.
canonwouldhavehadlittlelastingeffect theseexperiments
Everyscholarof humor(vainly)makesthepointthatTwainborrowednearly
everydevice or trickthatour textbooksnow gliblygive him the creditfor
College
butsuchquibbleshavehad no impacton Twain'spopularity.
inventing,
withsuchfolklore
at
areawareoftheriverraftsmen's
boasts,iffamiliar
students
Finn
from
that
became
the
nucleus
thediscardedchapter
Huckleberry
all, through
of chapterthreeinLifeon theMississippi(1883), withitsbragging
byBob and
theChildof Calamity:
anda bar'lofwhiskeyforbreakfast
whenI'm in
Look at me! I takenineteen
alligators
and a dead body whenI'm ailing!...
robusthealth,and a bushelof rattlesnakes
tomystrength!
Blood's mynatural
Whoo-oop!Standbackandgivemeroomaccording
drink,and thewail of thedyingis musicto myear!33
and local colorists,precededby anonymous
A dozenhumorists
newspaperand
in comparable
had reported
theseritualistic
face-offs
magazinesketch-writers,
themintobooks,booksthatsoldwell
detailbefore.YetMarkTwainincorporated
Whatis more,he gradually
assembledthesebooksintoa corpus
bysubscription.
infourdiverseregionsoftheUnitedStates
a narrator's
adventures
thatchronicles
and severalpartsof Europe.Thus the individualincidentsand passages gain
century,
magnitude
bytheirinclusionin an epic accountoflifein thenineteenth
recordofEnglishexistencethatCharlesDickensleftbehind.
liketheprodigious
morethanmostofhisfellowhumorists,
Too, itmustbe saidthatthisAmerican,
ImagineSam
acceptedchallengesand tookrisksto overcomecircumstances.
Missourinewspaper
editor.Impossible.It
behindas a small-town
Clemensstaying
is even difficult
to envisionhim as a longtimeSan Franciscocolumnistlike
AmbroseBierce.Thatrolesimplydoesnotfitourideaofhisrestless
temperament.
Princeton
Univ.Press,1966),
32Seeesp. JamesM. Cox,MarkTwain:TheFateofHumor(Princeton:
167.
33Mark
Twain,Lifeon theMississippi(Boston:JamesR. Osgood, 1883), 47.
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TheImportance
ofMarkTwain
45
savedhimfromsetting
downroots,andimbued
In Hannibalhisfamily'spoverty
an elan to our
himwiththeaggrandizing
wanderlust
thathelpedhimcontribute
histravels,
hecametoembodyan intrinsically
American
nationalscene.Through
to be impressed
whenexpectedto be-particularlywhen
characteristic:
refusing
usheredinto the presenceof so-called "culture." No one at the timefully
hisfeatinbridging
thecodesoftheEast,and
theWestbyvanquishing
apprehended
thanBretHarte,as it turnedout. Bornin Missouri,
doingso moreeffectively
schooledin thecolorfulregionsof Nevadaand California,Twainwenteast to
formulas.Americansrewardedthis
masterthenecessaryeconomicand literary
himas a unifying
venturesomeness
byadopting
legendforthenationas a whole.
who
Thegenerations
ofhumorists succeededMarkTwainwerelargelycollegeand
educated,
theyhad oftenservedon thestaffsof collegehumormagazines
rather
thanlocal newspapers-peoplelikeRobertBenchleyandHeywoodBroun
(Harvard),
GeorgeAde(Purdue),Alexander
Woollcott
DonaldOgden
(Hamilton),
Stewartand ClarenceDay (Yale), JohnKendrickBangs (ColumbiaCollege),
JamesThurber
(OhioState),Max Shulman(Minnesota),FrankSullivanandE.B.
White(Cornell),and S.J. Perelman(Brown).University
led
training
inevitably
Americanhumorawayfromtheruralor homelystylesof Artemus
Ward,PetroleumV. Nasby,OrpheusC. Kerr,JoshBillings,Bill Nye,andRobertJ.Burdette,
thoughsomeexceptions
(likeFinleyPeterDunne,DamonRunyon,WillRogers,
and H. Allen Smith)survivedand flourished
withoutthe benefitsof higher
educationorostensibly
makesa
sophisticated
styles.RobertBenchley,however,
modethatwouldbecomedominant,
andsomeof
superbexampleoftheemerging
hiswritings
showanaffinity
withTwain's.Thereis a Twain-like
tonetoBenchley's
"Ladies Wild," a waggishinvectiveagainstparlorcard games (or, forthat
matter,
anygamesexceptregularpoker):"I becamethespoil-sport
of theparty
to slip thedeal pastme, as ifby
again,and once or twiceI caughtthemtrying
mistake. . . . They had finallygotitdown to a game whereeverything
was wild but
theblacknines,andeveryone
was trying
for'low.' "i4 Professor
NorrisW. Yates
notesthat
themostimportant
featureof Benchley'shumorwas a character-type
whichmaybe
labeledthe "Little Man." In the nineteenth
JohnPhoenix,CharlesHeber
century,
fumblers
Clark,andotherssometimes
depictedgentle,bewildered
trying
unsuccessfully
to cope withan environment
too big and too complexforthem.35
Mark Twain's mostanalogousstoryin thisvein is titled"PlayingCourier"
34Robert
Benchley,"Ladies Wild," in A CarnivalofModernHumor,ed. P. G. Wodehouseand
ScottMeredith
(NewYork:DelcortePress,1967), 16;previously
inTheBenchley
published
Roundup,
ed. NathanielBenchley(New York:Harperand Row, 1938).
35Norris
W. Yates,RobertBenchley,TUAS No. 138 (New York:Twayne,1968), 18-21, also 25.
Professor
Yates's book suppliesa listof thecollege-educated
humorists
whomBenchleyknew.
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46
AmericanQuarterly
to arrangeall of thedetailsforhis family'stravelbetween
(1891). Attempting
refusestoemploya couriertoassist
thenarrator
stubbornly
GenevaandBayreuth,
byhisstupidpurchase
cappedfinally
him.A seriesofmishapsplagueshisefforts,
of lotteryticketsunderthe impressionthathe is buyingrailwaytickets."I
itis all one
amused;itis all onecando insuchcircumstances;
tobe greatly
affected
can do, and yetthereis no valuein it; it deceivesnobody,and youcan see that
aroundpitiesyouandis ashamedofyou." Whenhisfamilylearnsthat
everybody
lostboththeirbaggageandtheirhotelrooms,theyareopenly
he has additionally
dismayed.
andfuss
features
toremark
uponandreiterate
creditable
Theywouldskipovera thousand
courierinGeneva,andputinwork
aboutjustonefact,. . .-the factthatI electedmyself
and yetneverevengotmygangoutof town.I
enoughto carrya circusto Jerusalem,
finallysaid I didn'twishto hearanymoreaboutthesubject,it mademe tired.36
haveemployedthissortofunderstatebesidesJamesThurber
Few otherauthors
in behalfof the"LittleMan."
mentso efficaciously
It is conceivable,ifSamuelClemenshad somehowlivedtwodecadeslonger,
thathe mighthave joined the set of writersassociatedwiththeNew Yorker
JohnO'Hara, DorothyParker
magazine-Benchley,White,Sullivan,Thurber,
(and later,CoreyFord,S.J. Perelman,A.J. Liebling,and theothers).Would
Hotelcrowd,slicingaway
oftheAlgonquin
member
Twainhavebecomea revered
withscalpel-likewitwhileseatedwithGeorgeKaufmanat thefamousRound
Table? Wouldhe have appearedin thepages of thesame magazinethattoday
carriesWoodyAllen'scasuals?Quitelikely,forMarkTwainwas everalerttothe
windsof comedicchange.MarkTwainbecame,afterall, "Mark Twain"; his
It
andhegrewalongwithitas manandwriter.
legendgrew,athisencouragement,
harboredby
difficult
to live withintheconfinesof expectations
is exceedingly
andevennovelists
likeKurtVonnegut,
one'spublic;stageandscreenpersonalities
cantireof
relentlessly,
livesarespotlighted
Jr.,andNormanMailer,whoseprivate
in it,and
role,thrived
theirownaura.Yet Clemensadaptedto thisexcruciating
died in the processof addingnew dimensionsto it. This is an astounding
37
byhisbiographers.
onethathasnotyetbeenadequately
appreciated
achievement,
forrenown
youthcannotaccountfortheenergy
bya river-village
Theearlyhunger
thatthematureClemenslavishedin shoringup his publicimage;it is easy to
have gushedabout the
commentators
understand
why so manysentimental
whomhe leftbehindforfutureages. As his imagecame
"original" character
wantedandneededinthe
whatAmericans
intofocus,MarkTwainknewbyinstinct
lastas longas our
andhe providedone thatwillevidently
figures,
wayofmythic
Twain, "PlayingCourier,"collectedin The AmericanClaimantand OtherStoriesand
36Mark
Sketches(New York:Harperand Brothers,1898), 505-08.
Louis J.Budd's recentbook,OurMarkTwain:TheMakingofHis PublicPersonality
37However,
topic.
Press,1983), beginsto addressthisfascinating
(Philadelphia:Univ.of Pennsylvania
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ofMarkTwain
TheImportance
47
or thedesirerequisite
talent,audacity,
No one else hadthediplomacy,
country.38
ingratiating
imagein ourcollective
to leave behindthatmajestic,white-maned,
mind.For moststudentsand manyteachers,Mark Twain embodieswhatis
realism
aboutthepost-CivilWardecadesof literary
memorable
and noteworthy
and ournationalexperience.
literature
andhumor,
onefinds
toAmerican
aboutTwain'simportance
Thinking
ofliterary
history
thatseemin
todisagreewithcommonplaces
italmostimpossible
MarkTwaindid signaltheendoftheAmerican
littledangerofbeingoverturned.
Although
Romanticera, as surveyworksand textbooksannounceroutinely.39
criticism
hasyettoappearas a volumeintheMark
MarkTwain'scollectedliterary
againstJaneAusten,SirWalter
TwainPapersSeries,a fewofhisanimadversions
about
and othershavemadeknownhisjocularattitude
Scott,GeorgeMeredith,
andhisdevotionto realisticpreceptsofhisowntime.Unfairly
criticalprinciples
butmagnificently
malicious,and as famousas Hemingway'seulogytoHuckleberryFinn in GreenHills of Africa,Twain's "FenimoreCooper's Literary
andactuallyhelpsstudents
sensethe
Offences"hasbecomea stapleofanthologies
againstprecedingRomanticwritersthatpartiallymotivated
buriedresentment
inhis
Twainandotherrealistauthors.In pieceslikethisone andinthemarginalia
copies of BretHarte'sworks("One of thosebrutalCaliforniastage-drivers
"
couldnotbe politetoa passenger,-& notoneoftheguildever'sir'd' anybody,
of
nuance,
and
observer
detail,
Twainrevealedhimselfas a close
he groused),40
toessaysinliterary
criticism.
thewayforless stuffy
approaches
diction-opening
for
the
smallbutwelcomebandof
of
the
chief
inspirations
one
He is undoubtedly
academicwits-amongthem,HamlinHill, JamesM. Cox, JohnGerber,Jesse
ofEnglish
Bier,Louis D. Rubin,Jr.,Leslie Fiedler(SamuelClemensProfessor
andJohnSeelye-who inthe1970sand 1980scouldbe enteratSUNY-Buffalo),
reviews
papersor writing
tainingin theirown rightwhenreadingconference
and articlesaboutAmericanhumor.MarkTwain'stoneenabledthemto realize
in discussinghumoris simplyaskingfora pie in the
thatunbroken
solemnity
face, or is at least invitinganotherWoodyAllen lampoonin theNew Yorker
aboutthehilariousobtusenessof pompousprofessors.
is immeasurable,
butweknowatleastthathis
influence
MarkTwain'saggregate
of thisfact,theUniversity
of Alabamasponsoreda nationalsymposium
38In1981,in recognition
of MarkTwain"; thepapersdeliveredthere(eightof thempublishedby
titled"The Mythologizing
of
ofMarkTwain)examinedvariousfeatures
theUniv.ofAlabamaPressin 1984as TheMythologizing
resilientlegend.
Twain'sincredibly
thatthe old school was
declares,typically,
that"an obvious mainfestation
39LarsAhnebrink
intheparodiesandattacksthatMarkTwain
vanishing
anda newerawas abouttodawnwas exhibited
inAmerican
Fiction,inEssaysandStudies
ofNaturalism
See TheBeginnings
aimedatromanticism."
ed. S. B. Liljegren,No. 9 (New York:RussellandRussell,
on AmericanLanguageand Literature,
1961), 127.
"'BretHarte'sTheLuckofRoaringCamp,and OtherSketches(Boston:Fields,Osgood, 1870).
JohnsHopkinsUniv.
inMarkTwainas Critic(Baltimore:
SydneyJ.Krausediscussesthismarginalia
Press,1967), 202-20.
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48
AmericanQuarterly
writers
of
younger
shelvesofsomethemosttalented
booksappearedonthelibrary
JayHubbellnotes
hisperiod-StephenCraneandHamlinGarland,forinstance.4'
of fiction"is greaterthanthatof any other
thatTwain'sinfluenceon writers
exceptHenryJames.''42 Scholarshavediscernedtheimpactof
Americanwriter
SherwoodAnderson,Thomas
MarkTwainon theworksof ErnestHemingway,
and WilliamFaulkner.43
Wolfe,F. ScottFitzgerald,
toan
IfMarkTwainhadneverexisted,ifyoungSam Clemenshadsuccumbed
earlyillness,as hisfamilyexpected,orhadhe drownedin theMississippiRiver,
in our literature
wouldbe
like severalof his boyhoodchums,thensomething
and students
and
missing,and we wouldknowit. Whatwe professors
tangibly
century,
readerswouldfindlackingwouldbe ourlinkagepointwiththenineteenth
intheformofan actualmanwhomwe can admireand
especiallywithitshumor,
meansofmaintaining
toward.MarkTwainis oneofourfewsymbolic
feelaffection
betweenour past culturalheritageand our present-day
the crucialcontinuity
forall ofus,citizen-readers
andartist-comedians,
He is a reference
figure
attitudes.
ofwhatwe wanttoperceivetobe theAmerican
marking
thecommondenominator
As a publicspeakerandlecturer,
character.
indeed,MarkTwainwasverypossibly
whopresented
himself
as a "general"personagehumorist
ourlastperforming
insteadoftheentire
theembodiment
an easterner
norexactlya westerner,
neither
all partsequal, none predominating.
This "gesum of nationalregionalism,
fromWillRogers'slariat-twirling
actor,is equally
neric"persona,so different
remotefromtheethnicshtickof WoodyAllenand RichardPryoror theurban
He hasno direct,obvioussuccessors,
neurosisofJoanRiversandDavid Brenner.
is fragmented
thehumorofourcontemporary
nightclubs
onlyhisimpersonators;
Romantic
rebelling
againstoutworn
The foeofhumbug,explicitly
-andtypecast.
himin
formsandthemes,he detestedhighairsandsmugcomplacency-putting
insultsofW.C. Fieldsas wellas Lenny
thathasledtothestand-up
theprogression
Bruce.
Wardand others,Twainmastered
discriminative
lesLearningfromArtemus
his public
and publicity.
sons of theatricality
Amongotherfeats,he contrived
ofNaturalism,103, 144.
TheBeginnings
4"Ahnebrink,
144.
WhoAre theMajor Writers?,
42Hubbell,
see RichardBridgman,The ColloquialStylein America(New York:Oxford
43ForHemingway,
Univ. Press, 1966), 129-30, 196-97, 202, 219, 227; and JesseBier, "A Note on Twain and
Hemingway,"MidwestQuarterly,21 (1980), 261-65, the latterof whichcomparesthe styleof
The
RichardBridgman,
FinnandTheSunAlsoRises; amongothers,see forAnderson,
Huckleberry
Colloquial Stylein America,152-55, 159-60; G. Thomas Tanselle, "Anderson,Annotatedby
Memoirs:A
Brooks,"Notesand Queries(London),213 (Feb. 1968), 60-61; SherwoodAnderson's
CriticalEdition,ed. RayLewisWhite(ChapelHill: Univ.ofNorthCarolina,1970),342; forWolfe,
Fiction(Chicago:Univ.ofChicagoPress,1940),220-21;
AmericainContemporary
PereyH. Boynton,
RobertSklar,F. ScottFitzgerald:TheLast Laocoon (New York:OxfordUniv.Press,
forFitzgerald,
and
Humor(New York:Holt,Rinehart
JesseBier,TheRiseandFall ofAmerican
1967);forFaulkner,
Winston,1968), 105, 138, 352.
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TheImportance
ofMarkTwain
49
of (feigned)laziness,lack of erudition,
personaso as to conveytheimpression
of
Americansis less familiar
If
the
current
success.
easy
generation nonreading
thantheirliterate
withthequalitiesof his lesserworks,and somepredecessors
timesevenwithhis greatest
novels,at leasthe is oftenquotedfrompulpits,in
He hasgainedfavorwithacademicians
while
newspaper
columns,andatlecturns.
hisholdon thetasteoftheordinary
retaining
reader,something
thatPoe's fiction
but0. Henry'sfailedto bringoff.
accomplished
MarkTwainenduresbecause he is greaterthananyof his possibleclassifications-crackerbarrel
philosopher,
literary
comedian,worldtraveler,realist,
Naturalist,hoaxer,novelist,vernacularhumorist,after-dinner
speaker-with
whichhe mightbe labeled. He did practicallyeverything
thatwas expected
of a manof lettersin his age, and he generally
acquittedhimselfwell in every
He gave his countrymen
department.
pridein themselves,theirhumor,their
Andheelevatedthestation
ofhiscalling:amongTwain'sachievements,
literature.
humorseemlikea respectable
oneofhisgrandest
washissuccessinmaking
literary
His wealth,hisNookFarmhome,his fraternal
profession.
relationswiththeinfluentialand the lionized-these and othersignsof statuslaid a benediction
ofcomicsketches,
on hiscareerso lastingthatall subsequent
authors
stories,and
novelsowe hima largedebt.He rescuedthefunnyman
fromthesmudged-print
himtothehonored
of
tradition
pagesofBillings,Phoenix,andNasbyandrestored
BenjaminFranklin,
OliverWendellHolmes,andJamesRussellLowell.Moreover,
Twainmixedseriousnessand comedyso subtlyin workslike A Connecticut
Yankeein KingArthur'sCourtthathe himselfdid not alwaysunderstand
his
initialintentions,
and he thuseducatedpublishersand reviewersand readers
aboutthedeeperpossibilities
of humor,preparing
AmericanaudiencesforJohn
Cheever,KurtVonnegut,
Jr.,ThomasBerger,JohnBarth,and others.
American
wouldhaveflourished
MarkTwain'scontributions.
literature
without
Yetitwouldbe stuffier,
less redolent
oftheriverandtheWest,less
less colorful,
He hasgivenus, alongwithrichimpressions
oflifeonrafts,steamboats,
alluring.
stagecoaches, railroadcars, and ocean ships,a reassurancethatwe are not
travelingintosome black hole of the future,thatwe have a renewableand
a saneandattainable
accessiblepastthatguarantees
future.
amusement
By finding
inthewritings
andspeechesofoneAmerican
figureofthenineteenth
century,
we
and culturalisolationwhenwe
anxietiesaboutourhistorical
assuagedisturbing
withmisgivings
thedawningage ofcomputer
contemplate
technology,
biological
If we can palpablytouchthesteamboat
andgalactictransportation.
engineering,
pilot'swheelwithMarkTwain,thenour gripon thespaceshipcontrolsof the
feelssureras we extendourcapacityto shuttlea supplyof
twenty-first
century
humorintothefarther
reachesof humanhistory.
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