One of my favorite lines in this piece is: "Despite the pleasures of Hawaii, he could not help but remember a family quarrel." Ha ha ha ha ha. Aren't we all like that on most days?
Every young person should Rough It for a while. Maybe not let your dog fall into a lake full of caustic soda or set fire to a few hundred (thousand?) acres of forests on the shore of Lake Tahoe, but a lot of other okay things, like getting an old man just the right amount of drunk so he will drone on for hours with a rambling tale about his old man’s buck sheep, then makes its way through a tragedy of a man who fell into a carpet mill which sewed him in so tightly that that they decided to bury him in the carpet, except it was too wide for the church so they opened windows on either side and let the carpet hang out of the windows.
One doesn’t really know about living without a few Mark Twain life experiences.
I’m not sure which part is my favorite. The whole thing is very cleverly written. I do like the old guy who had to be just the right amount drunk. The SLC visit is good. The almost millionaires silver mine that didn’t get filed in time was good. The riding in the stagecoach on top of the mail in their underwear was good (and leaving some mail for the Indians). The description of meals at the stage stops was good. The description of the one farm sliding on top of the other and the legal battle thereafter was good.
I think the whole book is good. If ever a writer could turn racism inside out on itself, it was Mark Twain. The story of the sea captain whose favorite assistant, a black man, was murdered and how the captain proceeded with a trial was an excellent example of why Twain gets banned occasionally by shallow readers who can’t see the point passed the words.
I’m going to put Roughing It as a requirement on the test to become a properly licensed human being.
There are parts of Innocents Abroad that are pertinent background to today’s conflicts in the Middle East.
I also like the early scene riding the stage west and bouncing around with the unabridged dictionary. As a frequent user of a print dictionary myself, I always got a good chuckle there. But you're right, it's one chuckle after another. You're an expert!
Yay! I stayed in a B&B up in the village called Volcano, just outside the park. If I had read Twain first, I'm sure I'd have chosen Volcano House instead. I might have to go back.
There's a place where lava had crossed a road, and you could drive to the end of the road until the jagged old lava started, and then you had to park and walk out to the new flow. Was that where you went? (Nifty if we took the same road.)
Yes! It was amazing to see. It was mostly steamy at the crater, but down by the water's edge, you could see the fresh lava flowing over the old stuff on a giant field of jagged black. Eerie! I had no desire to walk out on the black field to see the fresh stuff up close. A little distance was perfectly satisfactory.
Masterful, Tara! Perhaps the ultimate example of "fake it 'til you make it"? One does rather need to drink one's own Kool-Aid to keep at it, especially through the dry spells.
Thanks, Josh. I find Twain's early career so fascinating. Any number of things could have kept him from the level of success he achieved, but on he charged. I'm fascinated by what Stegner calls the Doppler Effect of history - how futures are, of course, not at all assured. And yet some writers just know they have to keep stretching any direction but down. Cather included?
I haven't had any luck using the search. The search function does not seem to be working at all. When I click on it volume links appear, but not search windows.
I was particularly interested in seeing about York Maine, understanding that he once lived there briefly.
… After a little search, actually, think I may be able to work with that function after all but it will take a while to find what i'm looking for.
I searched for "Maine Pines" (for the name of the house, The Pines) and found many entries from that summer at York Harbor in Volume 3. (Entries came up in Volume 1 first, and I just kept scrolling til I could see that Twain was writing letters from York Harbor. Here's a sample, from around the time of engaging the summer "cottage."
These two comments are amazing in content. Just what I had hoped to be able to read about Clemens' stay in York. Thank you so much for your generous seeking out! In addition to good reading I am satisfied with the view that we had of this place when we visited York a few years back.I wasn't quite certain this was the place but now know it is so. We even managed to make a circle around thatPlease driveway! And now maybe this will give me something more to write about Mr. Clemens/Twain. Thank you much!
I've wondered that, too. I'm not sure. As perilous as it feels to read Crane, I can't fathom at all how it must have felt to be on the open ocean, deciding which direction to try to find land a thousand miles (or four thousand) this way or that. The hope of a passing ship would have been the only thing to keep a person sane.
His name was Ned Howard. He and Twain appear to have become acquainted at Volcano House and decided to travel together. (From “Mark Twain, Day by Day,” June 7, 1866). Possibly by sheer coincidence, he and Twain rode back to San Francisco on two different ships that left Honolulu the same day and passed through the Golden Gate at the same time, racing each other for sport. Ned Howard’s boat, the aptly-named “Comet,” won the race. There was said to be raillery and greeting on the decks. What he was doing in Hawaii (just touring?) and whether he had more relation with Twain than a week’s travel companionship, I do not know. He and Twain did not arrive at Kilauea together, but they chummed from Volcano House to Honolulu. I’d have to dig deeper to learn more.
Thank you, Paulette! Yes, I went there once, also some years back. Extraordinary is a good word. It felt strange to have a national park map and signage, as though the place were safe, while all the while we were on the flank of an active volcano. It was just eerie. We walked through an old, dormant crater, full of foliage. The descent into it on a trail and up out of it was also eerie, knowing these weren't just any slopes, but the slopes of a once-active crater. It definitely pushed my comfort zone. Beautiful, though.
Oh, that does sound both beautiful and eerie. Reminds me in a different way how there's a false sense of safety in some situations, like tourists visiting in National Parks, testing the boundaries and getting too close to the animals.
I love this. Thank you for such a lovely break in an otherwise hectic morning. Here are my answers to your questions, in the same order you presented them:
1. When you mentioned the Sacramento Union I suspected the story was about Twain.
2. I have not read Everett's new novel.
3. When I was born.
4. I have been to several different volcanoes in my long and reasonably illustrious life, including Kīlauea. It was a little creepy to walk (partway) through a lava tunnel and realize that I could, at any moment, experience the second most dramatic incident of my life, an incident that I very much doubt would fail to achieve its long-anticipated (and somewhat feared) significance.
Thank you for the good chuckle about the event that once seemed more significant. That is the answer of a humorist or a sage, and of course, they can be hard to tell apart. I cannot say I ventured into any lava tunnels on my volcano excursion, possibly from a great sense of the significance of my existence. 🫡 Glad the second most significant event is not in a rush.
I did not know Twain wrote Innocents Abroad, nor am I a literary scholar, so you would have chuckled to be inside my head as I read this essay. It kinda went like this,
"Hmm, interesting, this dude is IN it - staying up all night and running to the ship.
Good thing he has a good throw and his brown packet didn't land in the ocean.
Nice to hear his article was published.
Oh yes, I can relate about needing to improve the public speaking skills.
Reading along nicely...
Wait, WHAT?!
Go back and reread. Did she just say Mark Twain? Well holy smokes, who knew?
Go further back to reread and keep going to the end.
Haha! Thank you for the play-by-play Donna-brain-cam! 😂 You show me that I did my job well. I was hoping the name Mark Twain would come as a surprise to folks who didn't already know this phase of his career.
I thought the same thing about the packet landing in the water. Forward free of lines, stern line getting untied. Yikes! I'd have drowned my story, for sure.
GRACIAS QUIET READING
One of my favorite lines in this piece is: "Despite the pleasures of Hawaii, he could not help but remember a family quarrel." Ha ha ha ha ha. Aren't we all like that on most days?
Thanks for wonderful read, Tara.
Glad you enjoyed it, Rebecca! I love these little evidences of common humanity. ❤️
I knew it, I knew it, I knew. Hah.
Every young person should Rough It for a while. Maybe not let your dog fall into a lake full of caustic soda or set fire to a few hundred (thousand?) acres of forests on the shore of Lake Tahoe, but a lot of other okay things, like getting an old man just the right amount of drunk so he will drone on for hours with a rambling tale about his old man’s buck sheep, then makes its way through a tragedy of a man who fell into a carpet mill which sewed him in so tightly that that they decided to bury him in the carpet, except it was too wide for the church so they opened windows on either side and let the carpet hang out of the windows.
One doesn’t really know about living without a few Mark Twain life experiences.
Haha! The Tahoe fire is a favorite episode in that book for me. They're having such a lovely time until then ....
I’m not sure which part is my favorite. The whole thing is very cleverly written. I do like the old guy who had to be just the right amount drunk. The SLC visit is good. The almost millionaires silver mine that didn’t get filed in time was good. The riding in the stagecoach on top of the mail in their underwear was good (and leaving some mail for the Indians). The description of meals at the stage stops was good. The description of the one farm sliding on top of the other and the legal battle thereafter was good.
I think the whole book is good. If ever a writer could turn racism inside out on itself, it was Mark Twain. The story of the sea captain whose favorite assistant, a black man, was murdered and how the captain proceeded with a trial was an excellent example of why Twain gets banned occasionally by shallow readers who can’t see the point passed the words.
I’m going to put Roughing It as a requirement on the test to become a properly licensed human being.
There are parts of Innocents Abroad that are pertinent background to today’s conflicts in the Middle East.
I also like the early scene riding the stage west and bouncing around with the unabridged dictionary. As a frequent user of a print dictionary myself, I always got a good chuckle there. But you're right, it's one chuckle after another. You're an expert!
I’ve stayed in the Volcano House, overlooking the crater of Halema’uma’u — one of my very favorite hotel experiences!
Yay! I stayed in a B&B up in the village called Volcano, just outside the park. If I had read Twain first, I'm sure I'd have chosen Volcano House instead. I might have to go back.
Was the lava flowing when you went?
I saw it right up close! A few feet away.
Did you walk out on the old lava trail down by the coast to see the new stuff flow?
There's a place where lava had crossed a road, and you could drive to the end of the road until the jagged old lava started, and then you had to park and walk out to the new flow. Was that where you went? (Nifty if we took the same road.)
Yes! It was amazing to see. It was mostly steamy at the crater, but down by the water's edge, you could see the fresh lava flowing over the old stuff on a giant field of jagged black. Eerie! I had no desire to walk out on the black field to see the fresh stuff up close. A little distance was perfectly satisfactory.
Masterful, Tara! Perhaps the ultimate example of "fake it 'til you make it"? One does rather need to drink one's own Kool-Aid to keep at it, especially through the dry spells.
Thanks, Josh. I find Twain's early career so fascinating. Any number of things could have kept him from the level of success he achieved, but on he charged. I'm fascinated by what Stegner calls the Doppler Effect of history - how futures are, of course, not at all assured. And yet some writers just know they have to keep stretching any direction but down. Cather included?
GRACIAS WHICH LITERARY Y EN QUIET READING
Gracias, Amalia! 🙏
GRACIAS Y FELICES TARA PENRY TARA PENRY
Thank you much. Looks good.
I haven't had any luck using the search. The search function does not seem to be working at all. When I click on it volume links appear, but not search windows.
I was particularly interested in seeing about York Maine, understanding that he once lived there briefly.
… After a little search, actually, think I may be able to work with that function after all but it will take a while to find what i'm looking for.
Thank you!
I searched for "Maine Pines" (for the name of the house, The Pines) and found many entries from that summer at York Harbor in Volume 3. (Entries came up in Volume 1 first, and I just kept scrolling til I could see that Twain was writing letters from York Harbor. Here's a sample, from around the time of engaging the summer "cottage."
https://daybyday.marktwainstudies.com/vol-3-section-0731/
And here is the entry page showing the 4 print volumes. Click "Check it out" to start a search: https://marktwainstudies.com/mark-twain-day-by-day-database/.
Have you seen this article about the house where they stayed that summer, from 8 years ago? https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/2016/08/23/mark-twain-s-time-in/25598480007/
These two comments are amazing in content. Just what I had hoped to be able to read about Clemens' stay in York. Thank you so much for your generous seeking out! In addition to good reading I am satisfied with the view that we had of this place when we visited York a few years back.I wasn't quite certain this was the place but now know it is so. We even managed to make a circle around thatPlease driveway! And now maybe this will give me something more to write about Mr. Clemens/Twain. Thank you much!
That’s exciting that you got to see the house! I wish I’d known of it when I lived in Maine many years ago.
I wonder if Stephen Crane knew of this reportage when he lived and wrote his own "The Open Boat" over 30 years later.
I've wondered that, too. I'm not sure. As perilous as it feels to read Crane, I can't fathom at all how it must have felt to be on the open ocean, deciding which direction to try to find land a thousand miles (or four thousand) this way or that. The hope of a passing ship would have been the only thing to keep a person sane.
This is great, Tara. Teasingly told and lots of fun to read. I found myself wondering who the Englishman was...
His name was Ned Howard. He and Twain appear to have become acquainted at Volcano House and decided to travel together. (From “Mark Twain, Day by Day,” June 7, 1866). Possibly by sheer coincidence, he and Twain rode back to San Francisco on two different ships that left Honolulu the same day and passed through the Golden Gate at the same time, racing each other for sport. Ned Howard’s boat, the aptly-named “Comet,” won the race. There was said to be raillery and greeting on the decks. What he was doing in Hawaii (just touring?) and whether he had more relation with Twain than a week’s travel companionship, I do not know. He and Twain did not arrive at Kilauea together, but they chummed from Volcano House to Honolulu. I’d have to dig deeper to learn more.
Thank you for all that bonus information, Tara!
And now you know—the rest of the story ☺️
Bingo! Paul Harvey … my muse. 👍🏼
I somehow guessed it was Twain because of the date.
You know your Twain! The more people know of Twain's early professional years, the less mysterious the story. :-)
Leave it to Clemens / Twain to tell a whopper of a fish story! 🐟 Thanks for a fun read, Tara!
Exactly! There’s a man who loved his whoppers and his fish. 🎣
I did not know you were talking about Twain. What a fun and informative read, Tara.
When traveling in Hawaii several years ago we visited Kilauea. It was an extraordinary experience.
Have you, Tara? What was your experience like?
Thank you, Paulette! Yes, I went there once, also some years back. Extraordinary is a good word. It felt strange to have a national park map and signage, as though the place were safe, while all the while we were on the flank of an active volcano. It was just eerie. We walked through an old, dormant crater, full of foliage. The descent into it on a trail and up out of it was also eerie, knowing these weren't just any slopes, but the slopes of a once-active crater. It definitely pushed my comfort zone. Beautiful, though.
Oh, that does sound both beautiful and eerie. Reminds me in a different way how there's a false sense of safety in some situations, like tourists visiting in National Parks, testing the boundaries and getting too close to the animals.
I love this. Thank you for such a lovely break in an otherwise hectic morning. Here are my answers to your questions, in the same order you presented them:
1. When you mentioned the Sacramento Union I suspected the story was about Twain.
2. I have not read Everett's new novel.
3. When I was born.
4. I have been to several different volcanoes in my long and reasonably illustrious life, including Kīlauea. It was a little creepy to walk (partway) through a lava tunnel and realize that I could, at any moment, experience the second most dramatic incident of my life, an incident that I very much doubt would fail to achieve its long-anticipated (and somewhat feared) significance.
Peace
Thank you for the good chuckle about the event that once seemed more significant. That is the answer of a humorist or a sage, and of course, they can be hard to tell apart. I cannot say I ventured into any lava tunnels on my volcano excursion, possibly from a great sense of the significance of my existence. 🫡 Glad the second most significant event is not in a rush.
I never knew any of this and couldn't even guess it was Twain. This a WOW of research, Tara.
Twain scholarship has digitized some excellent primary sources.
Hooray! Glad you enjoyed the surprise.
I did not know Twain wrote Innocents Abroad, nor am I a literary scholar, so you would have chuckled to be inside my head as I read this essay. It kinda went like this,
"Hmm, interesting, this dude is IN it - staying up all night and running to the ship.
Good thing he has a good throw and his brown packet didn't land in the ocean.
Nice to hear his article was published.
Oh yes, I can relate about needing to improve the public speaking skills.
Reading along nicely...
Wait, WHAT?!
Go back and reread. Did she just say Mark Twain? Well holy smokes, who knew?
Go further back to reread and keep going to the end.
Well done Tara.
Holy Smokes, indeed!
Haha! Thank you for the play-by-play Donna-brain-cam! 😂 You show me that I did my job well. I was hoping the name Mark Twain would come as a surprise to folks who didn't already know this phase of his career.
I thought the same thing about the packet landing in the water. Forward free of lines, stern line getting untied. Yikes! I'd have drowned my story, for sure.