The author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a
popular MetaFilter topic, was
born 177 years ago today (November 30th 1835)
in Missouri. The printer, riverboat pilot,
game designer, journalist, lecturer,
technology investor, gold miner, publisher and
patent holder wrote
short stories, essays, novels and non-fiction under the
pen name Mark Twain. This included
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (recently
adapted into a musical), one of the top five
challenged books of the 1990s, published in 1884-85 to a
mixed reception and with an
ending that still causes debate.
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posted by Wordshore
on Nov 30, 2012 -
42 comments
The Adventures of the Real Tom Sawyer " Mark Twain was nursing a bad hangover inside Ed Stahle’s fashionable Montgomery Street steam rooms, halfway through a two-month visit to San Francisco that would ultimately stretch to three years. At the baths he played penny ante with Stahle, the proprietor, and Tom Sawyer, the recently appointed customs inspector, volunteer fireman, special policeman and bona fide local hero."
posted by artof.mulata
on Sep 24, 2012 -
21 comments
"
English As She Is Spoke is a broken Portuguese-to-English phrasebook written by two translators, José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino. Sort of. You see, in reality, translator Pedro Carolino wanted to create a phrasebook on his own. Not knowing English, he took José da Fonseca’s French-to-English phrasebook and then used a Portuguese-to-French phrasebook to translate that. It’s sort of like what you and your friends do on Google Translate, but with a poor, mislead Portuguese man doing it by hand in candlelight."
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posted by item
on Apr 18, 2011 -
52 comments
The Thirteenth Annual Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American humor was awarded to Tina Fey.
Here is video of the PBS broadcast of the awards ceremony as well as Ms. Fey's
complete acceptance speech.
posted by West of House
on Nov 16, 2010 -
78 comments
This is Mark Twain. In preparation for the long awaited release of the uncensored
Autobiography of Mark Twain *, the University of California Press and the
Bancroft Library * have put together an informative site about Twain's life. It features two interactive timelines (one in chronological order and one using the order of events as written in the autobiography) with audio excerpts from the autobiography, video of the editors of the Twain Papers offering context, and historic images documenting his life. Also on the site, though confusingly linked as "more about the autobiography", is a short documentary about the Twain archives at the Bancroft. Worth a visit at the very least for this image of
Sexy Sam. Uncensored indeed.
posted by Toekneesan
on Oct 8, 2010 -
14 comments
"
The Interview was not a happy invention.... In the first place, the interviewer is the reverse of an inspiration, because you are afraid of him." An
epic rant by Mark Twain, published for the first time this week.
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posted by ardgedee
on Jul 8, 2010 -
31 comments
About 2% of the US population died while serving in the military during the US Civil War, roughly equivalent to about six million people today. A few years after the war the best selling book at 100,000 copies was
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps'
The Gates Ajar, which deals mainly with heaven and what exactly happens there. Spoilers follow.
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posted by shothotbot
on Jan 27, 2010 -
29 comments
Over 2000 classic short stories from
American Literature as well as an option to sign up for a
short story of the day rss feed. Among the authors on offer are Kate Chopin, Saki, O. Henry, Louisa May Alcott, Ambrose Bierce, H. P. Lovecraft, Jack London, James Joyce, Willa Cather, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Dickens, Herman Hesse, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Franz Kafka, Honoré de Balzac, Edith Warton, P. G. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf, Langston Hughes, Leo Tolstoy, Aldous Huxley, Roald Dahl, Henry James, Katherine Mansfield and I could keep going for a while. The point is, there's over 2000 short stories in there.
posted by Kattullus
on Feb 17, 2008 -
31 comments
"The Blessings-of-Civilization Trust, wisely and cautiously administered,
is a Daisy. There is more
money in it, more
territory, more
sovereignty, and other kinds of emolument, than there is in any other game that is played. But Christendom has been playing it badly of late years, and must certainly suffer by it, in my opinion. She has been so eager to get every stake that appeared on the green cloth, that the
People who Sit in Darkness have noticed it –
they have noticed it, and have begun to show alarm. They have become suspicious of the
Blessings of Civilization."
posted by homunculus
on Jun 13, 2007 -
13 comments
"He was young and handsome, his mother's hope". Yes, the scourge of
Onanism has long plagued our young people, causing them no end of
misery,
woe, and
high ISP fees.
One champion of choice, our good friend Mark Twain, delivered a
stirring lecture to the Stomach Club in Paris, 1879, to defend our right to love ourselves. Bless his crusty old heart.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies
on Jun 16, 2005 -
36 comments
Mark Twain on
evolution:
It now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one...the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals. And, on
war:
Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception. Alphabetized Mark Twain quotes.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly
on Jul 24, 2003 -
16 comments
Mark Twain: A Film Directed by Ken Burns started on PBS tonite, on my local station. I know we have discussed Mark Twain's writting before, but I found
this as I was looking for other sources about Twain.
What do you think? Was he racist or was he trying to expose racist thinking? Or just weaving a good story?
posted by bjgeiger
on Jan 14, 2002 -
15 comments
A Little Light Relief - and Brush Up Your English While You're At It. In the spirit of poking fun at one's own flesh and blood - and respecting all those who aren't - I offer the most appalling tribute to Shakespeare's and Emerson's language since time itself began.
I give you, ladies and gentlemen, the great Portuguese scholar Pedro Carolino, whose "English As She Is Spoke" Mark Twain considered to be the funniest book ever written.
Start with "Familiar Dialogues 1" and, if you've still been able to keep a straight face, try "Idiotisms and Proverbs" for the full effect...
(Thanks to Ganz's Humor Page)
posted by MiguelCardoso
on Sep 20, 2001 -
19 comments
The War Prayer, by Mark Twain. I always like running across this kind of unpublished Twain gem. He's absolutely amazing at making his readers think. [via
boingboing]
posted by swell
on Sep 14, 2001 -
5 comments
