March 10th, 2010

I had the pleasure of seeing Hal Holbrook perform his one man Mark Twain show a couple of nights ago. It was extraordinary. Not only was I moved by the brave interpretation of the material, but impressed with Mr. Holbrook’s tenacity. He’s 85 years old. The set was simple. A desk, chair, pulpit, a few books, an ashtray, and a crystal pitcher of water and a glass. It was a wonderful experience and it made me want to read Huck Fin again. Samuel Langhorne Clemens came West looking for golf and discovered a career instead. He plied his trade as a journalist, but it was his short story, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” (set in the area that he’d gone to hunt for gold) that caused a sensation and made his name as a writer. Twain was brilliant. I thought I’d include some of my favorite Twain sayings on the site today. I aspire to be as entertaining in my work. We write frankly and fearlessly but then we “modify” before we print. – Letter to Fred J. Hall, 10 Aug 1892 about his work as a journalist. I conceive that the right way to write a story for boys is to write so that it will not only interest boys but strongly interest any man who has ever been a boy. That immensely enlarges the audience. – Life on the Mississippi. It is no use to keep private information which you can’t show off.- “An Author’s Soldiering,” 1887 Experience of life (not of books) is the only capital usable in such a book as you have attempted; one can make no judicious use of this capital while it is new.- letter to Bruce Weston Munro, 21 Oct 1881.