The ghosts of Mark Twain, or perhaps of his biographer, have been hounding me for weeks to finish Fred Kaplan's biography titled The Singular Mark Twain (New York: Doubleday, 2003). I spent several months plowing through all of the 655 pages (hardcover edition) of the book, not because I was disinterested, but because I was digesting it in small increments. I love biographies that I become immersed in to the point that I feel that I am living the narrative, that I get to know the people being written about so well I can anticipate their actions, and have empathy for their misfortunes. The Singular Mark Twain is such a biography.
Like everyone, I read and reread Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn years ago. I was entranced by Tom Sawyer but never quite adapted to the dark side of Huckleberry Finn, not being sophisticated enough to realize that Huckleberry Finn was essentially not only a boyhood adventure but also a masterpiece about racial relations. Despite Huckleberry Finn being designated the major literary classic of the two, Tom Sawyer was still, and remains, my favorite. The other Twain book I read about thirty years ago was Life on the Mississippi, which made an indelible impression on me. You could easily feel you were on board many of these journeys up and down the river. I especially remembered Life on the Mississippi when, a decade later, I was asked to write an economic study of inland waterway transportation in the United States for the National Water Commission. No matter that my choice as a researcher and an author for this study was patently absurd, since I had only crossed the river a half dozen times and certainly had never floated down it on a barge, let alone a raft. Nonetheless, I immersed myself in a mountain of government documents, books, research monographs, and various trivia, and wrote a report which earned me an invitation to speak at the annual convention of the inland waterways trade group. And that speech and the report earned me an invitation to ride down the Mississippi with one of the officers of the organization, an invitation which I have forever regretted not being able to accept.
Good biographies help readers understand the complex nature of their subjects. In Twain's case, I learned about his constant cycle of writing, succumbing to a succession of lame-brained pie-in-the-sky business ventures--each of which Twain was certain would make him a multi millionaire, and desperate efforts to pay back his indebtedness. His debts, particularly for a typesetting machine he was certain would revolutionize the newspaper and printing industry but which failed miserably, led him repeatedly to the lecture circuit, including lecturing in countries throughout the world. We will never know what his literary output could or would have been had he devoted his life to writing and abandoned his ill-fated attempts to become rich.
Twain married the love of his life, Olivia Langdon, known as Livy, who began life in frail health and became a semi-invalid, and worse, throughout much of her life. One of their three daughters died young of meningitis. Another was epileptic. The third eventually married in Twain's old age. Mark Twain was ultimately left without heirs.
He began his married life first in Buffalo, then in an idyllic home built in Hartford, a home he was forced to abandon to a long exile in Europe because it was cheaper to live in Europe and the family was always seeking new medical skills and spas to alleviate their physical ailments. Twain seemed to think nothing of renting a villa here for a month or two or a year, a cottage there for another month, moving among countries with astonishing frequency. Twain crossed the ocean numerous times, some times with family, some times by himself, often to face problems induced by his indebtedness over failed business ventures.
Given the complexities of Twain's life, his time spent on searching for and supporting one daydream business venture after another, and his perpetual guilt, his literary output remains incredible. Beginning as a newspaper reporter and writer, his venture into both nonfiction and fiction, his skills as a humorist and lecturer, and his eccentricities of character, ultimately led him to become one of the most recognizable and famous people in the world, despite spending much of his life near or below the level of sustainable poverty.
I'm now going to try and read a few other of Mark Twain's works, and reread Tom and Huck, having gained a new appreciation for their author.
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