Mark Twain at Oxford

Twain received an honorary doctorate in letters from Oxford University in 1907. He was in worthy company. Honorary degrees were also awarded to composer Camille Saint-Saens, sculptor Auguste Rodin, writer Rudyard Kipling, and General William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army.

In Latin, by University chancellor Lord Curzon, our Mark Twain was addressed thus:

"Most amiable and charming and playful sir, you shake the sides of the world with your merriment!"

Mark's Twain's Autobiography

Mark Twain had a love hate relationship with his autobiography. He started work on the project in 1877, at the age of forty-two. He spent the next 23 years quitting, starting again, reorganizing his notes, and changing his mind as to the relative merits of the whole enterprise. He was an ornery fellow. He continually struggled against the narrative constraints of his own writer's instincts and generally had a hell of a time squeezing himself onto paper.

When he died in 1910, he left us with several hundred thousand words in no particular order.

Twain on the Road

Twain shoveled himself out of debt by embarking on a lecture tour which took him all over the globe. He sold out eight consecutive performances at the Standard Theater in Johannesburg, South Africa. He gave three performances in Calcutta, India. One-hundred and fifty shows on five continents in the span of one year. He was sixty years old.

Mark Twain, Late in Life, Deep in Debt

1894 was a bad year for Mark Twain. At the end of the year he found himself about $100,000.00 in debt. Twain was a lot of things. He was not a shrewd business man.

Here’s what he had to say about the situation:

“If I live I can pay off the last debt within four years, after which, at
the age of sixty-four, I can make a fresh and unencumbered start in life.”

By the end of 1898 he paid off his creditors in full.

Mark Twain: Cure for Homesickness

Karine and I have been feeling a little homesick lately. Its not chronic and its not terminal, just a feeling. We've been away for almost two years now. We're going to be away for another year. After that, we don't know. That part is still in the planning stages. We may go home, we may live in another county, we may open an ice-cream shop on the beach somewhere. We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm going to be writing about Mark Twain until futher notice. Because nothing feels more like home than Mark Twain. He's everybody's American grandpa. And we still have a lot to learn from him.

I am a librarian. I have five biographies of Twain sitting on my desk right now. I also have his autobiography, which is mostly lies sprinkled with the truth here and there.

Alright then. Here we go.