The Importance of Mark Twain

Author(s): Alan Gribben

Source: American Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, Special Issue: American Humor (Spring, 1985), pp.
30-49
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2712761 .
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 THE IMPORTANCE OF MARK TWAIN

ALANGRIBBEN
ofTexas,Austin
University

MARK TWAIN IS THE ONLY WRITER WE HAVE RECOGNIZED AS AN AUTHOR OF IM-

mortalAmericanproseafterhavingbrandedhima "humorist."Whenin 1956
FloydStovallexplainedtheselectionprocessthatincludedMarkTwain(along
withPoe,Emerson,Hawthorne, Thoreau,Melville,Whitman, andJames)among
theeightauthors whodeservedlandmark essayssponsored
bibliographical bythe
American LiteratureGroupoftheModernLanguageAssociation, hecouldassume
that"doubtlessmostreaderswillagreethatat thistimeand forthepurposesof
thisvolumetheyare themostimportant Americanwriters."If one adds two
figures considered andthenomitted-Howells andDickinson-Twain'suniqueness
is stillevident.As a consequenceof thisreputation forhumor,Twain'sliterary
accomplishments werenevertakenforgranted; inthebeginning Howells,Brander
Matthews, WilliamLyonPhelps,andothershadtoinsistuponTwain'sstature as a
majorAmericannovelist.YetevenduringSamuelClemens'slifetime, encourag-
ingsignsof his risingstatusbeganto appear.
In an era whenuniversities bestowedhonorary degreesless freelythansome
perhapsdo today,threeschoolsconferred onClemens;thefirst
doctorates ofthese,
Yale University in 1901, produceda richlysymbolicevent:theresat Samuel
Clemens,self-educated, a productof a rough-and-tumble borderstateand the
strike-it-richFarWest,receivingthehighestdistinction awardedbya university
whosecurriculum had seemedconservative to thecolonialpoetJohnTrumbull.
The culturalrevolutionbetokenedby this ceremonywas probablyno more
apprehended by thosein attendance thanwas theequallysuggestivefactthat
Clemenshad feltcompelledto makehis adoptivehometheNew Englandcity
whereTrumbull andtheConnecticut Witshadflourished. Inasmuchas Twainhad
foundConnecticut-andthewestern regionswherehehadresidedpreviously-to
be suitablesettings forhis literature,
theAmericanliterary independence, now
completedattained,was merelybeingsolemnizedat thisYale proceeding, as it

'EightAmerican Authors: ed. FloydStovall(New York:W.W.

A ReviewofResearchand Criticism,
Norton,1956), vi.
 TheImportance
ofMarkTwain 31

laterwouldbe in similarceremonies at theUniversity of Missouri(1902) and at

OxfordUniversity (1907).2
Othertributesarrivedas well. Professor RichardBurtondeclaredin 1904 that
Clemenswas the "one livingwriterof indisputablegenius" in the United
States.ThatsameyearClemenswas amongthefirst sevenindividuals selectedby
secretballotformembership in theAmericanAcademyofArtsandLetters.The
othersixhonorees-including authorsWilliamDean Howells,EdmundClarence
Stedman,andJohnHay-have neveragainbeenaccordedthatdegreeofpublic
esteem,norhavemostof thosewhomthesesevenpeoplethenelected,suchas
ThomasBaileyAldrichand CharlesEliot Norton.3 In 1899, BranderMatthews
hadclassedTwainwithCervantes andMoliere,andthissortofaccolade,overthe
objectionsof certaindissentersin each succeedingdecade, has gainedmany
adherents.DuringClemens'slifetime, MatthewArnold,JohnNichol,andHenry
Jameswere amongthe skepticsregarding his mounting reputation,but their
werebalancedbytheenthusiasm
reservations ofcommentators likeJoelChandler
Harris,who in 1908 called MarkTwain "our greatestwriterof fiction,"and
Howells,whotermedhim,memorably, theLincolnof ourliterature. As JayB.
Hubbellhas noted,Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Twain's otherworks
foundadmirers as eminentas RobertLouis Stevenson, ThomasHardy,Andrew
Lang, and GeorgeBernardShaw.4
Nevertheless,MarkTwain'sliterary staturehas suffered, fromtimeto time,
becauseof his predilection forcomicforms.In 1920, mostnotably,Van Wyck
Brooksled his historicattackon Twain'scredentials and achievements, though
ensuingtestimonials fromauthors, andreaderselevatedTwainto
critics,teachers,
a toweringpositionamongthemastersofAmericanliterature. In thecategoryof
humor, indeed,hissupremacy todayis essentiallyunassailable,yetJayB. Hubbell
correctlyobservesthat

fortheliterary criticMarkTwainposes two specialproblems.First,he was a great

humorist, andBrooksandothercriticswithlittletasteforhumorhavehadgreatdifficulty
in assessingthevalueof his books. In thesecondplace, MarkTwainwas and stillis
enormously popular,andthisdisturbsthemoderncriticswhoseemto valueonlythose
writerswhomtheyregardas alienatedfromsociety.This . . . is a mainreasonwhythey
havemadeso muchof his pessimism.'

2Morethanfifty yearsago VernonLouis Parrington discernedTwain'simportance in thisregard:

"Here at lastwas . . . a nativewriter thinking
his own thoughts,usinghis own eyes,speakinghis
owndialect-everything Europeanfallenaway,thelastshredoffeudalculture gone,localandwestern
yetcontinental. . . . Yet in spiteof a rareveinof humor,. . . he made his way slowlyto polite
recognition. For yearshe was regardedby authoritative criticsas littlemorethana buffoon,an
extravagant fun-maker witha broadstreakof westerncoarseness."See TheBeginnings of Critical
Realismin America,1860-1920 (New York:Harcourt,Brace and World,1930), 86.
3Larzer Ziffdiscussessomeoftheironiesofthiselectionceremony inTheAmerican 1890's: Lifeand
Timesofa Lost Generation(New York:VikingPress, 1966), 345-47.
4JayB. Hubbell,WhoAretheMajor Writers? A StudyoftheChangingLiterary Canon (Durham,
N.C.: Duke Univ.Press,1972), 144.
5Ibid., 144.
32 AmericanQuarterly

Forthosewho harborambivalent feelingsaboutTwain'smass popularity in

theUnitedStates,thenandnow,a redeeming virtueis Twain'sapparent vitalness
toAmerican writers.
Demonstrably hebequeathed tothetwentieth centurya style
of prosethatspeaksto us almostcontemporarily, less impededby outmoded
linguisticlocutionsthanthatofanyotherhumorist-orofvirtually anywriter, for
thatmatter-ofhisday.His flexiblevoiceevennowcomesthrough as vibrantlyas
though he weredictatingthoseautobiographical recollectionsto us insteadof to
AlbertBigelowPaine and thestenographer Miss Hobby.Thatmodulatedvoice
emergedeffectively in his worksagain and again,untileventually he came to
believethatthisnarrativedevicealonewaseverything literaturewas about,thathe
coulddispensewithsetting, dialect,manners, characterdevelopment, evenplot.
He wouldprogressively experiment witheliminating theseotherelements, oneby
one, in storieslike "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg"(1899) and "The
$30,000Bequest"(1904),culminating intheenchanting talkofhisAutobiograph-
icalDictations,oftenfaultedfortheirformlessness, butwhichcanbestbe viewed
toTwain'searliest,favored
as a reversion form-a seriesofnewspaper-type topical
sketchesand occasionalcolumns,each perfectly intactand self-contained.
Yetin spiteofthedistinctive "oral" stylethatTwaindevelopedforhisprose,
hehasneverbeenthetarget ofparodieslikethosethathavemimicked therhetoric
ofPoe, Cooper,Whitman, James,Crane,Hemingway, andFaulkner.Like these
writers, Twaincan momentarily seemwindy,excitable,or pompous.Yet in the
main,he succeededin findinga senseof balance,forging a flexiblestylethat
conveyssubtlety and densityof meaningas well as thedisarmingfluidity of
ordinary conversationalspeech.One ofthelessmemorable ofTwain'sparagraphs
intheleastadmired ofhistravelnarratives,FollowingtheEquator(1897), canstill
illustratethesupplenessof his delivery:

InEnglandanypersonbelowtheheirwhois caughtwitha rabbitinhispossessionmust

explainhowitgotthere,orhe willsuffer
satisfactorily fineandimprisonment, together
withextinctionofhispeerage;inBluff[,NewZealand],thecatfoundwitha rabbitinits
possessiondoes nothavetoexplain-everybody lookstheotherway;thepersoncaught
noticingwouldsuffer fineandimprisonment, ofpeerage.Thisis a sure
withextinction
wayto undermine themoralfabricof a cat. Thirtyyearsfromnowtherewillnotbe a
moralcatinNewZealand.Somethink thereis nonetherenow. . . . All governments
are
in Englandtheyfinethepoacher,whereashe oughtto be
moreor less short-sighted:
banishedto New Zealand. New Zealandwouldpay his way,and give himwages.6

Hyperbole,anthropomorphism, theoccasionalidiomaticexpression, anda jab at

inpassageslikethisone.However,
Englishlawareevident itsultimateeffectiveness
stemsfromtheimpressionitdeliversofa likablepersona'sactualspeech,daringl)

Conn.: AmericanPublishing,1897), 285-86.

6MarkTwain,FollowingtheEquator(Hartford,
 TheImportance
ofMarkTwain 33

punctuated withsemicolonsand structuredaroundparallelphrases,thenartfully

frozeninprint.Suchparagraphs do notsimplyfoolus, as Hemingway's dialogues
andmonologues succeedindoing,intoerroneouslysupposing thatpeopleactually
speakEnglishthatway(mostexcerpts fromHemingway's novelsandshortstories
soundwoodenandclumsywhenreadaloud,despitetheverisimilitude theyappear
toexudeon thepage). In Twain'scase, themajority ofhistalesandessayscanbe
readorallywithoutembarrassment to thereader;people maynottalkin such
carefully craftedunitsofpunctuationandequipoise,buttherhythms anddiction
are harmoniously suitedto thecontextand subjectmatter.
Manyof MarkTwain'sverbaleffects,of course,dependeduponhis skillin
creatingthe formof addressforone dominantspeaker.Twain tinkeredwith
vernacular approachesoverand overagain,oftenfindinghis way to workable
combinations ofstoryandtone,andoncemanaging toinventa boy'smonologue
thatensuredhis place in all studiesof fictionalnarrative.He alwayshad an
affection forthis"aural" elementin literary
works,rehearsing oralreadingsof
RobertBrowning'sversemonologuesand RudyardKipling'sballads;his own
fiction featuredloquaciousfigures
likeSimonWheeler,UncleMumford, Colonel
Sellers,andevenKingLeopold.InA TrampAbroad(1880), thecomicmodelfor
travelers like Paul Theroux,whichhelpsthemchuckleat inconveniences and
teachesthemto acknowledgeand cherishtheirinescapableattitudes of cultural
superiority, thenarratorgivestheimpression of an oralmanner.To fullysavor
Twain'sjoke in chaptertwenty-five of thatwork,however,a readerneeds to
reviewa typicalaccountofchamois-hunting thatappearedinTwain'sday;thenthe
subversive natureof Twain'sassaulton whatHenryNash Smithhas variously
termed"genteel bombast," "bookish phrases," "cliches of refinement
and ideality,"and "decadent high cultureof the nineteenth century"also
comesintofocus.7Thefollowing description
appearedina Philadelphiaperiodical
a littlemorethana decadebeforeTwainwroteA TrampAbroad;I quoteonlya few
sentences:

The mostcourageousinhabitants oftheAlpstakea particular pleasurein lookingfor

andkillingthechamoisinthewildsofthehighest mountains.
Greatcourage,presenceof
mindand perseverance is wantedin chamoishunting.Withthethick-soled shoes,the
iron-tippedstick,thepointedhat,ornamented witha chamoisbeard,and thedouble-
barrelrifle,the hunterstartsin the evening... to surprisethe chamoisat their
pasturages.... Oftenthickfogscomeup, so thathe can see buta fewfeetahead;or a
furious
tempest breaksout,thatthreatenstoprecipitate
thehunterintotheabyss.It is no
wonder thatchamois-hunterslosetheirlivesinfalling
downa gapintheice,ora precipice;
and,nevertheless, otherinhabitants
of theAlps undertake thisdangerouschase.8

7HenryNash Smith,Mark Twain: The Developmentof a Writer(Cambridge:HarvardUniv.

Press/Belknap
Press, 1962), 16, 17, 41; Smith,Democracyand theNovel: PopularResistanceto
Classic AmericanWriters
(New York:OxfordUniv.Press,1978), 119.
8"ChamoisHuntingin theAlps" [anonymous], SaturdayNight[Philadelphial,
7 Dec. 1867, 7.
34 AmericanQuarterly

Twain's versionof these heroics in A TrampAbroad, a book thatis currently

undervaluedand oftenoutofprint,comicallyexpatiateson theverminthatinfested
his Swiss hotels:

A greatdeal ofromantic nonsensehas beenwritten abouttheSwisschamoisandthe

perilsof huntingit, whereasthetruthis thateven womenand childrenhuntit, and
fearlessly;indeed,everybody huntsit;thehunting is goingon all thetime,dayandnight,
in bed and outof it. It is poeticfoolishnessto huntit witha gun;veryfewpeopledo
that.. . . Theromancers alwaysdressupthechamoishunter ina fanciful andpicturesque
costume, whereas thebestwaytohuntthisgameis todo itwithout anycostumeatall.
Thecreature is a humbugineveryway,andeverything whichhasbeenwritten aboutitis
sentimental exaggeration. It was no pleasureto me to findthechamoisout,forhe had
beenone ofmypetillusions;all ofmylifeithadbeenmydreamtosee himinhisnative
wildssomeday,andengageintheadventurous sportofchasinghimfrom clifftocliff.Itis
nopleasuretometoexposehim,now,anddestroy thereader'sdelight inhimandrespect
forhim,butstillit mustbe done.9

His astonishingseries of paired opposites in thispassage, his scoffingattackon

stilted"romanticnonsense," his undeterredinsistenceupon a mistakenidentifi-
cation, his confusionof mightyexploits witheverydaynuisances-we recognize
theseas hallmarksof Twain's comic pose. They enabled him to exploitEuropean
guides, Turkishcoffee,and Turkishbaths(InnocentsAbroad); stagecoach-travel,
AmericanIndians, and horse-auctions(RoughingIt); river-piloting, WalterScott,
and Indian legends (Life on the Mississippi), and countless othermaterialsthat
otherwritersseldom turnedto theiradvantage.
Yet in termsof mosttechniquesthatTwain employed,he was exemplaryrather
than unprecedented.Certainly "The Celebrated JumpingFrog" (1865), with
its easily distractedmonologist and his anecdote about the illness of Parson
Walker's wife ("'it seemed as if theywarn'tgoing to save her"), is reminiscent
of theWidow Bedott's ramblingaccountsof herfamilyand neighbors,especially
the recollectionsof her deceased husband Hezekiah:

Whyitsan onaccountable factthatwhenthatmandiedhe hadentseena welldayin

fifteenyear,thoughwhenhewasmarried I shouldent
andforfiveorsixyearafter desireto
see a ruggedermanthanwhathewas. ButthetimeI'm speakin'ofhe'dbeenouto' health
nighupontenyear,and 0 dearsakes!howhe hadalteredsincethefirst timeI eversee
him!Thatwas toa quiltin'toSquireSmith'sa spellaforeSallywas married. I'd no idee
thenthatSal Smithwas a gwineto be married to Sam Pendergrass.She'd benkeepin'
companywithMose Hewlitt,forbetter'n a year,andeverybodysaid thatwas a settled
thing,and lo and behold!all of a suddingshe up and tookSam Pendergrass.'0

9MarkTwain,A TrampAbroad,Author'sNationalEd., 2 vols. (New York:HarperandBrothers,

1907), 1, 245-46.
"FrancesMiriamWhitcher, The WidowBedottPapers (1856), rpt. in WalterBlair's Native
AmericanHumor(1937; rpt.New York:Chandler,1960), 271-72.
 ofMarkTwain
TheImportance 35

withits
andfriendship,
Inthishodpodgeofgossipydetailsabouthealth,marriage,
chatty, speechandtheearnest,candidtoneofaddress,we arealready
countrified
SimonWheeler'syarn,and also to
close to thePikeCountydialectof garrulous
JimBlaine'sextravagantefforts
to narrate old ram:
thestoryofhisgrandfather's

Seth Green was prob'lythe pick of the flock;he marrieda Wilkerson-Sarah

Wilkerson-goodcretur, shewas-one ofthelikeliestheifers
thatwas everraisedinold
Stoddard,everybody saidthatknowedher.She couldhefta bar'lofflouras easyas I can
a flapjack.Andspin?Don'tmention
flirt Humph!WhenSile Hawkins
it!Independent?
come a-browsing aroundher,she let himknowthatforall his tinhe couldn'ttrotin
harnessalongsideof her."

The comicplight,on theotherhand,of theunwillinglistener, trappedinto

hearingdetailsaboutwhichhe simplyhas no interest andgradually enmeshedin
thespreading web of factandanecdote,proved a if
fresh reliable predicament in
Twain'sfiction. In itsdrollestvariantshe dramatizesthecaptive hearer's torture
withtendersolicitude.The offended genteelnarratorwho "frames"theSimon
Wheelerstory of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog" indignantly construesthe
tale as an attempt "to boreme to deathwithsome exasperating reminiscence
. . .as longandas tediousas itshouldbe uselesstome," andhisfateis sharedby
theMarkTwaincharacter in "AboutBarbers"(1871), whoemphasizesthathe
merely wantsa quickshaveso thathecancatcha noontime train,thensitsinagony
whiletheloose-tongued barber, theprototypeforRingLardner'sdensebarberin
"Haircut," "latheredone side of my face thoroughly, and was about to
lathertheother, whena dog-fight hisattention,
attracted andherantothewindow
andstayedandsaw itout,losingtwoshillings on theresultinbetswiththeother
barbers,a thingwhichgave me greatsatisfaction." Thatlastcomment suggests
howmuchTwaincomestodetestthisprating personwho,as itturnsout,ownsa
dog himself,and "strungout an accountof the achievements of a six-ounce
blackandtanterrier ofhistillI heardthewhistlesblowfornoon,andknewI was
fiveminutestoo late forthetrain. . . . The barberfelldown and died of apoplexy
twohourslater.I am waitingovera dayformyrevenge-I amgoingtoattendhis
ofA TrampAbroad,thesituation
funeral."'2In chaptertwenty-six humorously
evokestheharanguethatColeridge'sWeddingGuestendures:theWashington
correspondent Rileypushesa captive"againstan ironfence,buttonholedhim,
fastenedhimwithhiseye,liketheancientmariner," andproceededtounfoldthe
storyof a government in theera of AndrewJackson.'3
claim-seeker
Thishabitualgambitof depicting thetalkativenarrator's
audienceas victim,

"MarkTwain,RoughingIt, ed. Franklin P. Rogersand Paul Baender,The Worksof MarkTwain

Series(Berkeley:Univ.of CaliforniaPress,1972), 345.
'2MarkTwain, "About Barbers,"in Mark Twain'sSketches,New and Old (Hartford, Conn.:
AmericanPublishing,1875), 259-61.
'3Twain,A TrampAbroad,I, 270.
36 AmericanQuarterly

thuscompelling thereadertoreflectthathe toohasbeentakenadvantage of(even

thoughhe has enjoyedthetale),representsone ofthecomprehensive Twain
uses
made of the vernacular voices he fashioned.Whyhe succeededat thismore
lastinglyand appealinglythanhis contemporary humorists is stilla matterfor
discussion.In a slightlydifferent
connection, ErnestEarnestascribesTwain's
ofstyletothepublishing
originality practicefor which hewascriticized inhisown
day,and thisexplanation possiblyhas relevancehere:"One reason thatMark
Twainhad been able to breaknew ground in the use of colloquial American
Englishwas thathe publishedhisbooksin thesubscription press,thatis through
publisherswhosesalesmentookordersfromdoortodoor. didthisnotinorder
He
toescapetherestrictionsofconservativeeditorsbutsimplybecausehethought he
could make more money. . . . The unsophisticatedpublic who patronizedthe
publishers
subscription was less squeamishthantheAnglophileeditors,critics,
and professorsof literature."HenryNash Smithadds: "This [subscription
method]was probably a wisedecision.It was a wayforthewriter
tofreehimself
fromthedominantliteraryconventions. . . . He was forcedto inventa new form
and a new stylein whichto expresshimself.'4
It is truethatMarkTwainwas one ofthefewhumorists to availhimself ofthe
awesomesalesapparatus ofthesubscription-canvassing method.Yetthisin itself
cannotentirely accountforwhyGeorgeAde's cleverfablesandstories-eventhe
marvelous"Dubley, '89," thatamusingaccountof an alumnus'sinappropriate
speechat a dinneroftheBeverlyalumni-arepractically forgotten today,along
withthehumorous of scores
productions of other literarycomedians likePetro-
leumV. NasbyandRobertJ.Burdette, whileTwain reignsparamount in thefield
of Americancomedy.GeorgeAde and theothers primarily wrote their materials
forspecificnewspapers(and newspapersyndicates)-theChicagoRecord,the
ToledoBlade, and theBurlington Daily Hawk Eye-as Twaindid at thecom-
mencement of his writingcareer,an arrangement he was eventuallyable to
the
abandon.When newspaper wits collectedtheir disparate columnsfora pub-
lisher,theresulting book oftenrelied on repetitious devices and lackedgenuine
Bill
coherenceand development. Nye's FortyLiars, and Other Lies (1882), for
is
example, certainly entertainingin itsway. Taking biased aim at Mormons, Ute
andSiouxIndians,Chinese, newspaper bandits,
editors, and theassassin Guiteau,
Nye employsunderstatement and malapropism to advantage.The prefacecon-
cedes: "There is a tacit admission . . . by the author that some little trifling
falsehoods mayhavecreptintothework,owingtothehurry andrushofprepara-
onthepartofthosewhoarementioned
tion.. . . I hopetherewillbe noill-feeling
personally. . . , and who are still alive, and comparativelyvigorous." A dog

Earnest,TheSingleVision:TheAlienation
'4Ernest ofAmerican (NewYork:NewYork
Intellectuals
Univ.Press,1970), 48-49; Smith,Democracyand theNovel, 107.
 ofMarkTwain
TheImportance 37

storyin thebook, "Entomologist,"divertingly relatesforchildrentheadven-

turesofa Thurberian dogthatatefifteen feetofa lariat,obliginghismastertobuy
thatarticle;thedogfinally diesafterdevouring somesoftplasterofParis,leavinga
plastercast of himself("interiorview") and prompting theepitaph,"He bit
offmorethanhe could chew." Nye's remarkaboutfashion-plate plug hatsis
entirelyworthy of Twain'sexaggerations: "In former yearsthey used to hanga
manwhoworea plughatwestoftheMissouri,but afterawhile they found thatit
was a morecruelandhorrible punishment to lethim wear it,and chase itover the
whenthefrolicsome
foot-hills it
breezecaught up and toyed with it, andlammed it
againstthe broad brow of Laramie Peak." All the same, the miscellaneous nature
of FortyLiars, despiteits westernflavorof talltalesand "lies," suggeststhe
drawbacksof manysuchpublications.'5
The factis, the majorityof Americanhumorists-asJoelChandlerHarris
provedwithSisterJane(1896) andGabrielTolliver(I1902)-werebetter equipped
or a
forthesquib,thesketch,thestory, heterogeneous collection of anecdotes and
yamsrather thanextended fictional
inventions of satireand plot.16 Fortunately for
Twain,he experimented intrepidlywith numerous genres, moving from the hoax
and burlesqueto the travelsketch,the shortstory,the polemicalessay, the
monologue,and thenovel;he was capable, as it turnedout, of adequately(if
haltingly)converting his talentsforthepurposeof lengthier efforts thatneeded
greatercontrol of form. In addition,he wrote voluminously; any minor authorof
thenineteenth century whoseliterary estatecouldsuccessfully layclaimto even
one tenthofTwain'swritings wouldinstantly be granted newrespectandwould
dulybe inserted in classroomtextbooks.
Our contemporary fascination withThe Mysterious Stranger(1916), "The
War Prayer"(1923), and otherfictionand essays fromMark Twain's later
phase-a departure fromthetasteofanthology editorsofpreviousgenerations-
indicatesthatmodemreadersadmireTwain'scourageinregistering hismoodsand
approveof thefactthathis religiousbeliefs,social philosophies,and literary
techniques mustbe studiedin termsof different "periods" of his outlook.As a
consequence,he seemsengagingly honestand complex.The truthis, his late
polemicsanddiatribes haveaccordedwiththetemper ofourrecentangrydecades.
Thereis an ironyhere,because,totakeone instance,SamuelClemenscouldnot
bringhimself tocopyright hisfavoritephilosophical treatiseWhatIs Man? (written

"EdgarW. Nye,FortyLiars, and OtherLies (Chicago:Belford,Clark,1882), 6, 199, 223.

'6DavidE. E. Sloane notes,forexample,that"aftertheCivil War,[OrpheusC.] Kerr,likethe
others,triedto writesustainedfiction.The handfulof novelshe producedwere only modestly
successful."WhenthefamousArtemusWarddied, Ward"had notattempted sustainedfictionin
anyform, ofAmerican
andthepossibilities humorinthatarearemained untilthesuccessesof
untapped
MarkTwain." See MarkTwainas a Literary Comedian(BatonRouge:LouisianaStateUniv.Press,
1979), 24, 44.
38 AmericanQuarterly

in 1898,publishedin 1906)inhisownname,letalonesignthetitlepage.17Itwas
notthatanyrealharmcould come to thedistinguished authorexpressing these
deterministic viewsabouthumanconduct-rather, his misgivings involvedthe
insecurityheoftendisplayed aboutthepublicimagehehadcreated,thatvenerated
MarkTwainpersonahe hadprojectedskillfully andinfallibly forso manyyears.
Clemensthemanwas at oddswithTwaintheimagein theirfinalyears,andthis
tensionbetweentheprivateandthepublicfigure,histragicandcomicqualities,
has becomethedominantissue in MarkTwaincommentary eversince. Alice
Hegan Rice was shockedand embarrassed in August,1909, whenshe visited
RichardWatsonGilderand listenedto Clemenslambastingthe orderof the
universe;latershe wrote,"I havean amusingrecollection ofMr.Gilderleading
meprotectingly intothehouseon one ofthoseoccasions,andwhispering, 'Don't
listento thatblasphemous and unhappyold man!""18 Yet thedisgustof Twain's
associateswentbeyondthepall he could cast on a dinnerparty.Theyand his
audienceat largewantedAmerica'sforemost humorist to concludehis lifewith
goodcheer-to inspireall ofus in ourtrudging circumstances, to setan example
fortheproperly humorous departure frommortalexistence.No doubttheyhoped
foran upbeatexitsuchas (thesupposedlycarefree, butactuallycrusty)William
Saroyantriedtosupplyin 1981whenhetelephoned theAssociatedPresstoreport,
onlyslightly inadvance,hisowndemise;withcheekyaplomb,theauthorofThe
TimeofOurLifeexpressednonchalant curiosityaboutthesequenceofsensations
he was soon to undergo.
MarkTwain'smasktrembled a bittowardtheend,and he was notuniformly
capableofjocularpronouncements. Yet he had theconsolationofknowingthat
he had outstripped his competitorsin thefieldof comedy,had indeedseta new
recordof longevity forhismasspopularity. Whenhe cameto assessthereasons
behindthisphenomenalsuccess,he wouldattribute it to theimpatiencewith
humanfoiblesthathe manifested moreand moreobsessivelyafter1895. His
definitiveexplanation datesfrom1906, whenTwaindictateda screedabouthis
fellowhumorists thathas becomewell knownto literary historians.
Glancing
through thecontentsof an anthologyof Americanhumorthathe had helped
compilenearlytwenty yearsearlier,MarkTwain'sLibraryofHumor,'9 he con-
cludedon July13, 1906, thatthe book was now "a cemetery"and gloated
about his own survivalin contrastto the literaryexpirationof his many
contemporaries:

Isabel V. Lyonrecordedon 9 May 1906: "It was thisday thatMr. Clemens

"Privatesecretary
gavetheGospelMs. to Mr.FrankDoubledayto taketo startin on thepublishing of 250 copiestobe
ontheDeVinnepress;nottobe published
printed inMr.Clemens'sname,noteventobe copyrighted in
hisname."See Lyon'sjournalintheHumanities
ResearchCenter, Univ.ofTexasatAustin;textquoted
fromLaurieLentz's "Mark Twainin 1906: An Editionof SelectedExtractsfromIsabel V. Lyon's
Journal,"ResourcesforAmericanLiteraryStudy,11 (Spring1981), 31.
"Alice HeganRice, TheInkyWay(New York:Appleton-Century, 1940), 80.
'9MarkTwain'sLibraryofHumor,ed. SamuelL. Clemens[alsoWilliamDean HowellsandCharles
HopkinsClark](New York:CharlesL. Webster,1888).
 ofMarkTwain
TheImportance 39

I havehadforcompany otherAmerican
seventy-eight Eachandeveryone
humorists.
roseinmytime,becameconspicuousandpopular,andbyandbyvanished.. . . Thereis
whoseeye wouldlightwith
yearsof age in thecountry
probablynota youthof fifteen
at thementionof anyone of theseventy-eight
recognition names.

Alludingto Nasby,Ward,Strauss,Derby,Burdette,Perkins,Kerr,O'Brien,
Billings,and the DanburyNews Man, he observedthattheir"writingsand
mouthbutarenowheardofno moreandareno
sayingswereonceineverybody's
longermentioned."Thenhe madetheoft-quotedassertionthat(in his opinion)
accountedforhis endurance:

Whyhavetheyperished? Becausetheyweremerely humorists.. . . Oftenitis merely

anoddtrickofspeechandofspelling,as inthecase ofWardandBillingsandNasby .
and presently the fashionpasses and the famealong withit. . . Humormustnot
professedlyteach,anditmustnotprofessedly preach,butitmustdo bothifitwouldlive
forever.By forever,I meanthirty years.... I havealwayspreached.Thatis thereason
thatI havelastedthirtyyears.. . . I wasnotwritingthesermonforthesakeofthehumor.
I shouldhavewritten thesermon justthesame. . . . I am sayingthesevainthingsinthis
frankwaybecauseI am a dead personspeakingfromthegrave.11

Like muchof Twain'sautobiography, thisis compellingand revelatory and

quotable;foronething,itrecallshisdeclaration madefortyyearsearlier(ina letter
writtenfromSanFranciscotoOrionandMollieClemensonOctober19, 1865)that
he had contemplated the prospectof becominga preacher,but,lacking"the
necessarystockin trade-i.e., religion,"had yieldedto "a 'call' to literature,
ofa low order-i.e., humorous."'Yetthestatement of 1906is notaltogether as
trueas its currency todaywould imply.The volumeto whichTwain adverts
containsspecimensfromforty-six This is a minor
authors,not seventy-eight.
matter,however;without questionthebookcollectedmostof thehumorists who
wereknownbythe1880s,andTwainmentally addedotherswhohadappearedon
the scene in the succeedingdecades. More significant is the overlookedfact
thathumorists likePetroleum V. Nasby,JoshBillings,and evenArtemus Ward
wereundeniably-andfrequently-serious in theirwritings.Whether criticizing
draft-dodgers or ridiculinghumanavarice,theywere scarcelythe "phunny
phellows"whomMarkTwaincaricatures here.Moreover, ProfessorBromWeber
and othershave pointedout thattheCivil War humorists who electedto don
"dialectal [sic] masks of semiliterates,"dependingon "quasi-phonetic
misspelling,oreyedialectas itis termedbylinguists,"wereinventiveforerunners
of realismbecauseof thisconvention of "orthographicrearrangement."22

20MarkTwaininEruption,ed. BernardDeVoto(New York:HarperandBrothers, 1940),201-03.

2'Quotedin Justin Kaplan'sMr. Clemensand MarkTwain:A Biography(New York:Simonand
Schuster,1966), 14.
22See,forinstance,BromWeber,"The Misspellers,"in The ComicImaginationin American
Literature,
ed. Louis D. Rubin,Jr.(New Brunswick,N.J.: RutgersUniv.Press,1973), 128-35.
40 AmericanQuarterly

Then,too, Twain'sown writings frequently can be shownto have lackedthe

moraldidacticism thathe citesas purportedly essentialfordurability. Few ofhis
earlytales and sketchesdisplayexamplesof such "preaching."How much
seriousnessare we supposedto discern,forexample,in his sketchtitled"The
LateBenjaminFranklin"(1870), inwhichthenarrator complainsthatFranklin's
maximabout "early to bed and earlyto rise" broughton his "presentstate
of generaldebility"?"My parentsused to have me up beforenine o'clock
in themorning sometimes whenI was a boy,he avers."If theyhad letme take
mynaturalrestwherewouldI have been now? Keepingstore,no doubt,and
respectedby all." In thesame sketchhe scoffsbecauseFranklin"was always
proudof tellinghow he enteredPhiladelphiaforthe firsttime,withnothing
intheworldbuttwoshillings inhispocketandfourrollsofbreadunderhisarm.
But really,whenyou come to examineit critically, it was nothing.Anybody
could have done it.' '23 It is similarlydifficultto detectthe "sermon" in
"The Celebrated JumpingFrog," "Jim Wolfe and the Tom-Cats,"
"Jim Blaine and His Grandfather's Old Ram," "An Encounterwith an
Interviewer," "JimBaker'sBluejayYarn," and dozensof othertales.
Thefactis,MarkTwainwasthinking in 1906mainlyoftheliterary workshehad
beenpublishing at time.
that Perhaps he also had in mind the stridentindictments
thatappeared in Following the Equator (1897). He hadomitted humor toa dismal
extent in "A Dog's Tale" (1903), "The Czar's Soliloquy" (1905), and
Whatis Man? (which would be circulated in August 1906). Yet formany years
mostcriticshavetakenTwain'sself-analysis atface-value, principally becauseof
his prestigious ranking in American humor; he is unquestionably preeminent
amongthehumorists whomhe namesanddismisses.Also, thefervent toneofhis
professeddedicationto "preaching"allaysthe inclination to look behindhis
words.Finally,and mostimportant, Twainis conceptualized by teachersand
criticsprimarilyintermsofthesinglenovelofhisthattheymostteachandstudy,
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).There Mark Twain did seem to be
inculcatinglessonsabouthumannature andsocialbehavior; wereaders comeaway
fromthatbook feelingthatwe have learneda good deal morethanHuck has
concerning our fellowhumanbeings,theirgullibility, theirgreed,and their
strivingsforfellowship andself-respect. Theprominence ofthisnovelhascolored
ourresponses toTwain'sappraisalofhimself in 1906,andthelatter credodoesnot
merittheacceptanceithas gained.Afterall, he madethesesweepinggeneraliza-
tionsabouteveryAmericanhumorist he knew,andabouttheentirety ofhisown
humor-andtheseopinionsaresimplythefondwishesofan elderlyauthorrather
thanhistorical truth.
Twain'sreflections,however, do raisequestions thathaveengrossed scholarsfor
a number ofyears.Forthemostpart,thosewhohavegiventhought tothesetopics

Twain,"The Late BenjaminFranklin,"in MarkTwain'sSketches,New and Old, 277.

23Mark
 TheImportance
ofMarkTwain 41

have agreedthatTwainis superiorto his brethren, beingpossiblytheleading

humorist whomtheUnitedStateshas producedinanycentury; buttheypointout
thathis favoriteploys-understatement, blackdialect,exaggeration, burlesque,
incongruity,deadpanvernacular, and others-wereused by his contemporaries
andthosewhoprecededthem.JamesM. Cox declaresof A.B. Longstreet, J.J.
Hooper,J.G. Baldwin,T.B. Thorpe,HenryClay Lewis, and G.W. Harris:
"All thesehumorists mighthave been forgotten had notMarkTwain,whose
whole geniuswas rootedin the [Southern]tradition, made his way intothe
dominant culture."M. ThomasInge adds: "The importance of theworkof the
groupof writers knownas the Southwestern Humoriststo the mainstream of
Americanliterature receivedonlyslightcriticalrecognitionuntilitwas observed
thatitfurnished a literary backgroundforandinfluenced muchofthewritings of
MarkTwain."24Indeed,theseearlySouthernhumorists' fictionis virtually
as
inaccessibleandbaffling tomostAmerican readerstodayas an unglossedpageof
Shakespeare's history plays;thedialects,folkways,costumes,oaths,drinks, and
rompsofSutLovingood,SimonSuggs,andotherrusticcharacters seemas strange
andintimidating tomanypresent-day studentsas thespeechandbehavior ofPrince
Hal and Falstaff.25 Still,ephemeralSouthernmaterialshad theirplace in Mark
Twain'sdevelopment; ithasoftenbeenpointedout,forexample,thatTwain'sfirst
famousstoryaboutthejumpingfrogwas formerly an oralanecdotein theOld
Southwestern tradition of humor,thatits "frame"narrator boreresemblances
tothegentlemen whointroduced stories
byThorpe,Longstreet, andothers, andthat
itsdialectrestson perhapsforty yearsof writtendialecthumor.26
Mark Twain also formedpartof an even largertradition, thatof "rural
humor,"in thecompanyof JosiahAllen'swife(MariettaHolley),theDanbury
News Man (JamesBailey), RobertBurdette,Bill Nye (EdgarW. Nye), Max
Adeler(CharlesHeberClark),M. Quad (CharlesB. Lewis),andPeck'sBad Boy
(George WilburPeck). C. CarrollHollis, admitting that "there is no. . .
Rabelais,noCervantes,. . . exceptforMarkTwain"amongtheruralcomedians,
asks, "Why is it thenthatClemensis remembered and Nye and the others
forgotten?" He answersthat,amongotheradvantages, MarkTwain'ssubjectsdid
not date so quickly.This pointespeciallyis worthnoting.Lewis Leary has
remarked thatmuchof OliverWendellHolmes's "humoris so topicalthat,
unlikehis one-horseshay,it failedevento outliveits century,"and Louis B.
Wright has stressedsomething thatwe all knowintuitively: "Humoris a very

24James M. Cox, "Humorof theOld Southwest,"in Rubin,ed., The ComicImagination,112;

M. ThomasInge,ed., TheFrontier Humorists:CriticalViews(Hamden,Conn.:Archon,1975),266.
251nfact,therehasbeena recentattempt
tosalvageselectednineteenth-century
humorousstoriesby
preparing"modernizedtexts," in The Mirthof a Nation:America'sGreatDialect Humor,ed.
WalterBlairand RavenI. McDavid, Jr.(Minneapolis:Univ.of MinnesotaPress,1983).
26See,forinstance,
Kenneth S. Lynn,ed., TheComicTradition inAmerica:AnAnthology
(London:
VictorGollancz,1958), 335.
42 AmericanQuarterly

perishablecommodity."27 MarkTwain,however, seemsfunny anyfoot-

without
notessupplying political,and literary
thehistorical, contexts(as CharlesNeider
has repeatedlydemonstrated withhisscissors-and-paste editionsofTwain'swrit-
ings).Humanresponsesremainthesame,evenwhencustomsalter;thesexually
embarrassed purchaserofkidglovesin Gibraltar ("I was hot,vexed,confused,
butstillhappy;butI hatedtheotherboysfortakingsuchanabsorbing interest
inthe
proceedings")is everamusingforhis mortification whenever we readersopen
chaptersevenof TheInnocents Abroad(1869). Beyonderoticinnuendoes, this
narrator theAmerican
fullytypifies reaction toall thatis foreign, complicated,and
assuredlyelegant.
Equallytimelessis theanecdoteinRoughingIt abouttheliarnamedMarkiss
whomMarkTwainmeton theislandofMaui,a mancompulsively determinedto
top everyconversationalist'sstorywiththetale of his own smokingchimney,
hugetree,fasthorse,parsimonious employer, untilhe acquiressucha reputation
formendacity thata coroner'sjury refusesto believeMarkiss'shandwritten
suicidenote,despiteeveryevidencethathe has hangedhimself,and returns
a verdictof "death 'by thehandsof somepersonor personsunknown."'This
lyingcharacter ruinsMarkTwain'sstayon theisland,he wouldhaveus suppose,
and indeedeverysuch encounter, abroador at home, illustrates how easily
American naivetecanbe takenadvantage of;buthisnarrator is invariably
grateful
fortheeducatingexperience.In Honolulu,to pick an example,he luxuriates
intheabundance ofediblefruits-oranges, pineapples, bananas,mangoes,guavas,
melons:

Thenthereis thetamarind. I thought

tamarindsweremadetoeat,butthatwasprobably
nottheidea. I ateseveral,anditseemedtomethattheywererather sourthatyear.They
pursedup mylips,tilltheyresembledthestem-end of a tomato,and I had to takemy
sustenance through a quill fortwenty-four hours.Theysharpened myteethtillI could
haveshavedwiththem,andgavethema "wireedge" thatI was afraidwouldstay;but
a citizensaid "no, it will come offwhentheenameldoes"-which was comforting,
atanyrate.I found,afterward, eattamarinds-but
thatonlystrangers theyonlyeatthem
once.28

Bymeansofsuchstrategems, MarkTwainshouldered hiswaytotheforefrontof

comedians,emerging
literary fromthemainbodyof thosewriters boldlyand
permanently.Yet reasonscan be foundelsewherethanin hispowersofabsolute
He faredbetter
originality. thantherestbymoreskillfullyblendingandutilizing
therangeoftechniques thattheywerealreadyemploying. not
Twain'swritings,

Century,"Lewis Leary, "Wash-

27C. CarrollHollis, "Rural Humorof the Late Nineteenth
ingtonIrving,"and Louis B. Wright,"Human Comedyin EarlyAmerica,"in Rubin,ed., The
ComicImagination,170, 174, 176, 116, 21.
28Twain,RoughingIt, 407.
 The Importanceof Mark Twain 43

havebecometheessentialgrammar
theirs, forAmerican comicdevicessuchas the
deadpanstyleand ironicunderstatement.
What,then,besidesMarkTwain'smastery ofa newdimension inoral-sounding
hischiefinnovations?
prose,constitute Firstandforemost, LelandKrauthseems
correctinsingling
outthewayTwainalteredoneofthetacticsofOld Southwestern
humor:"he changedthe frame,thatstructural divisionbetweenthe conven-
tionalgentlemannarrator
andhisvulgarheroeswhichcreateda separation
between
theauthor'sworldoforder,reason,andmorality, andtheactor'slifeofdisorder,
violence,andamorality.Twaineliminatedthisdivision."29
Krauthis referring
to
the vernacularvoice of HuckleberryFinn,but HenryNash Smithgives this
deductiona widerapplication:

The straight
character speaksin correct,evenpedanticor pompouslanguagewhich
contrasts
vividlywiththeincorrect
buthighly coloredspeechofthebackwoodscharacter.
In MarkTwain'sbestwriting (including ofcourseAdventures ofHuckleberryFinn)the
vernacular
spokesman takesoverthenarrative thestraight
entirely; character
disappears
andalthough hispresencecan stillbe feltbehindthescenesor beneaththesurface,the
speechof thevernacular characterbecomestheonlyavailablenarrative medium.30

Twaintriedout composite"voices" in some of his earlynewspapersketches;

in a piece titled"The Receptionat thePresident's"(1870), forinstance,his
personais a volubleWashington visitorfromtheNevadasagebrushwho,intent
upon describingdesertscenes and personagesto PresidentUlyssesS. Grant,
impedesa statelyprocessionat theWhiteHouse (anothercase of a storyteller's
descentupona cornered listener).Growingindignantwhenangrypeoplein the
line begin pressingagainsthim frombehind,the desertdenizenwhirlsand
confronts a haplessmanathisrearwhois beingcrushedbythegrowling mob;in
high-toned, stuffydictionhe reprimandstheinnocent,unoffendingfellow:"My
friend,yourconductgrievesmetotheheart.A dozentimesatleastyourunseemly
crowdinghas seriouslyinterfered withtheconversationI am holdingwiththe
President, andifthethingoccursagainI shalltakemyhatandleavethepremises."
Yet it is the meek-looking who retortswith
man, amazed at such effrontery,
authentic colloquialspeech:"I wishto themischief youwould!Wheredid you
comefromanyway, thatyou'vegottheunutterablecheekto spreadyourselfhere
andkeepfifteen hundred peoplestandingwaitinghalfanhourtoshakehandswith
thePresident?"'" Later,ofcourse,Twain'screationslikeHankMorganwouldbe

29LelandKrauth,"Mark Twain:The Victorianof Southwestern Humor,"AmericanLiterature,

54 (1982), 377.
30Smith,Democracyand theNovel,108. See also Kenneth
S. Lynn,MarkTwainand Southwestern
Humor(Boston:Little,Brown,1959), 148.
3'Mark Twain,"The Receptionat thePresident's,"rpt.in Mark Twain:Lifeas I Find It, ed.
CharlesNeider(GardenCity,N.Y.: HanoverHouse, 1961), 118.
44 AmericanQuarterly

able to speakan animated, slangybrandofEnglishwhileexpressing someofthe

author'sintellectual beliefs.Thisevolutionwas a significant
accomplishment for
American humor, andintheprocessMarkTwaincapablymodified theOld South-
ern traditionof regional"dialect" untilits tone, smoothedand tempered,
became"vernacular"instead.32 For thesecontributionsalone, his worksmerit
special attention. Yet theyhave othercharacteristics thathave ensuredtheir
importance to a laterage.
One of thesetraitsis thetremendous rangeof MarkTwain'sliterary produc-
tions.Duringa careerspanninghalfa century, he triedhis handat numerous
categoriesand subgenresof literature, includingdetectivefiction,scatology,
maxims,sciencefiction, andpoliticalpamphlets. The diversityofhisenormous
if
canonwouldhavehadlittlelastingeffect theseexperiments hadlackedquality.
Everyscholarof humor(vainly)makesthepointthatTwainborrowednearly
everydevice or trickthatour textbooksnow gliblygive him the creditfor
inventing, butsuchquibbleshavehad no impacton Twain'spopularity. College
students areawareoftheriverraftsmen's boasts,iffamiliarwithsuchfolklore at
all, throughthediscardedchapter from Huckleberry Finn thatbecame thenucleus
of chapterthreeinLifeon theMississippi(1883), withitsbragging byBob and
theChildof Calamity:

Look at me! I takenineteen anda bar'lofwhiskeyforbreakfast

alligators whenI'm in
robusthealth,and a bushelof rattlesnakesand a dead body whenI'm ailing!...
Whoo-oop!Standbackandgivemeroomaccording tomystrength!
Blood's mynatural
drink,and thewail of thedyingis musicto myear!33

A dozenhumorists and local colorists,precededby anonymous newspaperand

magazinesketch-writers, had reported theseritualistic in comparable
face-offs
detailbefore.YetMarkTwainincorporated themintobooks,booksthatsoldwell
bysubscription. Whatis more,he gradually assembledthesebooksintoa corpus
thatchroniclesa narrator's
adventures infourdiverseregionsoftheUnitedStates
and severalpartsof Europe.Thus the individualincidentsand passages gain
magnitude bytheirinclusionin an epic accountoflifein thenineteenthcentury,
liketheprodigious recordofEnglishexistencethatCharlesDickensleftbehind.
Too, itmustbe saidthatthisAmerican, morethanmostofhisfellowhumorists,
acceptedchallengesand tookrisksto overcomecircumstances. ImagineSam
Clemensstaying behindas a small-townMissourinewspaper editor.Impossible.It
is even difficultto envisionhim as a longtimeSan Franciscocolumnistlike
AmbroseBierce.Thatrolesimplydoesnotfitourideaofhisrestless temperament.

32Seeesp. JamesM. Cox,MarkTwain:TheFateofHumor(Princeton: Princeton Univ.Press,1966),

167.
33Mark Twain,Lifeon theMississippi(Boston:JamesR. Osgood, 1883), 47.
 TheImportance
ofMarkTwain 45

In Hannibalhisfamily'spoverty savedhimfromsetting downroots,andimbued

himwiththeaggrandizing wanderlustthathelpedhimcontribute an elan to our
nationalscene.Through histravels,hecametoembodyan intrinsically American
characteristic:
refusingto be impressed whenexpectedto be-particularlywhen
usheredinto the presenceof so-called "culture." No one at the timefully
apprehended hisfeatinbridging theWestbyvanquishing thecodesoftheEast,and
doingso moreeffectively thanBretHarte,as it turnedout. Bornin Missouri,
schooledin thecolorfulregionsof Nevadaand California,Twainwenteast to
masterthenecessaryeconomicand literary formulas.Americansrewardedthis
venturesomeness byadopting himas a unifyinglegendforthenationas a whole.
Thegenerations ofhumorists succeededMarkTwainwerelargelycollege-
who
educated, and theyhad oftenservedon thestaffsof collegehumormagazines
rather
thanlocal newspapers-peoplelikeRobertBenchleyandHeywoodBroun
(Harvard),GeorgeAde(Purdue),Alexander Woollcott (Hamilton),DonaldOgden
Stewartand ClarenceDay (Yale), JohnKendrickBangs (ColumbiaCollege),
JamesThurber (OhioState),Max Shulman(Minnesota),FrankSullivanandE.B.
White(Cornell),and S.J. Perelman(Brown).University traininginevitablyled
Americanhumorawayfromtheruralor homelystylesof Artemus Ward,Petro-
leumV. Nasby,OrpheusC. Kerr,JoshBillings,Bill Nye,andRobertJ.Burdette,
thoughsomeexceptions (likeFinleyPeterDunne,DamonRunyon,WillRogers,
and H. Allen Smith)survivedand flourished withoutthe benefitsof higher
educationorostensibly sophisticatedstyles.RobertBenchley,however, makesa
superbexampleoftheemerging modethatwouldbecomedominant, andsomeof
hiswritingsshowanaffinity withTwain's.Thereis a Twain-liketonetoBenchley's
"Ladies Wild," a waggishinvectiveagainstparlorcard games (or, forthat
matter,anygamesexceptregularpoker):"I becamethespoil-sport of theparty
again,and once or twiceI caughtthemtrying to slip thedeal pastme, as ifby
mistake. . . . They had finallygotitdown to a game whereeverything
was wild but
theblacknines,andeveryone was tryingfor'low.' "i4 Professor
NorrisW. Yates
notesthat

themostimportant featureof Benchley'shumorwas a character-type

whichmaybe
labeledthe "Little Man." In the nineteenth JohnPhoenix,CharlesHeber
century,
Clark,andotherssometimes depictedgentle,bewilderedfumblers
trying
unsuccessfully
to cope withan environmenttoo big and too complexforthem.35

Mark Twain's mostanalogousstoryin thisvein is titled"PlayingCourier"

34Robert
Benchley,"Ladies Wild," in A CarnivalofModernHumor,ed. P. G. Wodehouseand
ScottMeredith(NewYork:DelcortePress,1967), 16;previously inTheBenchley
published Roundup,
ed. NathanielBenchley(New York:Harperand Row, 1938).
35Norris
W. Yates,RobertBenchley,TUAS No. 138 (New York:Twayne,1968), 18-21, also 25.
Professor
Yates's book suppliesa listof thecollege-educated
humorists
whomBenchleyknew.
46 AmericanQuarterly

(1891). Attempting to arrangeall of thedetailsforhis family'stravelbetween

GenevaandBayreuth, thenarrator stubbornly refusestoemploya couriertoassist
him.A seriesofmishapsplagueshisefforts, byhisstupidpurchase
cappedfinally
of lotteryticketsunderthe impressionthathe is buyingrailwaytickets."I
affectedtobe greatlyamused;itis all onecando insuchcircumstances;itis all one
can do, and yetthereis no valuein it; it deceivesnobody,and youcan see that
everybody aroundpitiesyouandis ashamedofyou." Whenhisfamilylearnsthat
lostboththeirbaggageandtheirhotelrooms,theyareopenly
he has additionally
dismayed.

Theywouldskipovera thousand creditablefeatures

toremark uponandreiterate
andfuss
courierinGeneva,andputinwork
aboutjustonefact,. . .-the factthatI electedmyself
enoughto carrya circusto Jerusalem, and yetneverevengotmygangoutof town.I
finallysaid I didn'twishto hearanymoreaboutthesubject,it mademe tired.36

Few otherauthors besidesJamesThurber haveemployedthissortofunderstate-

mentso efficaciously in behalfof the"LittleMan."
It is conceivable,ifSamuelClemenshad somehowlivedtwodecadeslonger,
thathe mighthave joined the set of writersassociatedwiththeNew Yorker
magazine-Benchley,White,Sullivan,Thurber, JohnO'Hara, DorothyParker
(and later,CoreyFord,S.J. Perelman,A.J. Liebling,and theothers).Would
Twainhavebecomea revered member oftheAlgonquin Hotelcrowd,slicingaway
withscalpel-likewitwhileseatedwithGeorgeKaufmanat thefamousRound
Table? Wouldhe have appearedin thepages of thesame magazinethattoday
carriesWoodyAllen'scasuals?Quitelikely,forMarkTwainwas everalerttothe
windsof comedicchange.MarkTwainbecame,afterall, "Mark Twain"; his
legendgrew,athisencouragement, andhegrewalongwithitas manandwriter. It
is exceedingly difficultto live withintheconfinesof expectationsharboredby
one'spublic;stageandscreenpersonalities andevennovelistslikeKurtVonnegut,
Jr.,andNormanMailer,whoseprivate livesarespotlighted cantireof
relentlessly,
theirownaura.Yet Clemensadaptedto thisexcruciating role,thrived in it,and
died in the processof addingnew dimensionsto it. This is an astounding
achievement, onethathasnotyetbeenadequately byhisbiographers.
appreciated 37
Theearlyhunger forrenown youthcannotaccountfortheenergy
bya river-village
thatthematureClemenslavishedin shoringup his publicimage;it is easy to
understand why so manysentimental commentators have gushedabout the
"original" character whomhe leftbehindforfutureages. As his imagecame
intofocus,MarkTwainknewbyinstinct whatAmericans wantedandneededinthe
wayofmythic figures, andhe providedone thatwillevidently lastas longas our

36Mark Twain, "PlayingCourier,"collectedin The AmericanClaimantand OtherStoriesand

Sketches(New York:Harperand Brothers,1898), 505-08.
37However,Louis J.Budd's recentbook,OurMarkTwain:TheMakingofHis PublicPersonality
Press,1983), beginsto addressthisfascinating
(Philadelphia:Univ.of Pennsylvania topic.
 ofMarkTwain
TheImportance 47

No one else hadthediplomacy,

country.38 or thedesirerequisite
talent,audacity,
to leave behindthatmajestic,white-maned, imagein ourcollective
ingratiating
mind.For moststudentsand manyteachers,Mark Twain embodieswhatis
memorable and noteworthy aboutthepost-CivilWardecadesof literary realism
and ournationalexperience.
Thinking aboutTwain'simportance toAmerican literature
andhumor, onefinds
italmostimpossible todisagreewithcommonplaces ofliterary
history thatseemin
littledangerofbeingoverturned. MarkTwaindid signaltheendoftheAmerican
Romanticera, as surveyworksand textbooksannounceroutinely.39 Although
MarkTwain'scollectedliterary criticismhasyettoappearas a volumeintheMark
TwainPapersSeries,a fewofhisanimadversions againstJaneAusten,SirWalter
Scott,GeorgeMeredith, and othershavemadeknownhisjocularattitude about
criticalprinciples andhisdevotionto realisticpreceptsofhisowntime.Unfairly
butmagnificently malicious,and as famousas Hemingway'seulogytoHuckle-
berryFinn in GreenHills of Africa,Twain's "FenimoreCooper's Literary
Offences"hasbecomea stapleofanthologies andactuallyhelpsstudents sensethe
buriedresentment againstprecedingRomanticwritersthatpartiallymotivated
Twainandotherrealistauthors.In pieceslikethisone andinthemarginalia inhis
copies of BretHarte'sworks("One of thosebrutalCaliforniastage-drivers
couldnotbe politetoa passenger,-& notoneoftheguildever'sir'd' anybody, "
he groused),40 Twainrevealedhimselfas a close observerof nuance,
detail, and
diction-opening thewayforless stuffy approachestoessaysinliterary criticism.
He is undoubtedly one ofthe chiefinspirationsforthesmallbutwelcomebandof
academicwits-amongthem,HamlinHill, JamesM. Cox, JohnGerber,Jesse
Bier,Louis D. Rubin,Jr.,Leslie Fiedler(SamuelClemensProfessor ofEnglish
atSUNY-Buffalo), andJohnSeelye-who inthe1970sand 1980scouldbe enter-
tainingin theirown rightwhenreadingconference papersor writing reviews
and articlesaboutAmericanhumor.MarkTwain'stoneenabledthemto realize
thatunbroken solemnity in discussinghumoris simplyaskingfora pie in the
face, or is at least invitinganotherWoodyAllen lampoonin theNew Yorker
aboutthehilariousobtusenessof pompousprofessors.
MarkTwain'saggregate influenceis immeasurable,butweknowatleastthathis

38In1981,in recognitionof thisfact,theUniversity of Alabamasponsoreda nationalsymposium

titled"The Mythologizing of MarkTwain"; thepapersdeliveredthere(eightof thempublishedby
theUniv.ofAlabamaPressin 1984as TheMythologizing ofMarkTwain)examinedvariousfeatures of
Twain'sincrediblyresilientlegend.
39LarsAhnebrink declares,typically, that"an obvious mainfestation thatthe old school was
vanishinganda newerawas abouttodawnwas exhibited intheparodiesandattacksthatMarkTwain
aimedatromanticism." See TheBeginnings ofNaturalism inAmerican Fiction,inEssaysandStudies
on AmericanLanguageand Literature, ed. S. B. Liljegren,No. 9 (New York:RussellandRussell,
1961), 127.
"'BretHarte'sTheLuckofRoaringCamp,and OtherSketches(Boston:Fields,Osgood, 1870).
SydneyJ.Krausediscussesthismarginalia inMarkTwainas Critic(Baltimore: JohnsHopkinsUniv.
Press,1967), 202-20.
48 AmericanQuarterly

booksappearedonthelibrary shelvesofsomethemosttalented younger writers

of
hisperiod-StephenCraneandHamlinGarland,forinstance.4' JayHubbellnotes
thatTwain'sinfluenceon writers of fiction"is greaterthanthatof any other
Americanwriter exceptHenryJames.''42 Scholarshavediscernedtheimpactof
MarkTwainon theworksof ErnestHemingway, SherwoodAnderson,Thomas
Wolfe,F. ScottFitzgerald, and WilliamFaulkner.43
IfMarkTwainhadneverexisted,ifyoungSam Clemenshadsuccumbed toan
earlyillness,as hisfamilyexpected,orhadhe drownedin theMississippiRiver,
like severalof his boyhoodchums,thensomething in our literature wouldbe
tangiblymissing,and we wouldknowit. Whatwe professors and students and
readerswouldfindlackingwouldbe ourlinkagepointwiththenineteenth century,
especiallywithitshumor, intheformofan actualmanwhomwe can admireand
feelaffectiontoward.MarkTwainis oneofourfewsymbolic meansofmaintaining
the crucialcontinuity betweenour past culturalheritageand our present-day
He is a reference
attitudes. figureforall ofus,citizen-readersandartist-comedians,
marking thecommondenominator ofwhatwe wanttoperceivetobe theAmerican
character.As a publicspeakerandlecturer, indeed,MarkTwainwasverypossibly
ourlastperforming humoristwhopresented himself as a "general"personage-
neitheran easterner norexactlya westerner, theembodiment insteadoftheentire
sum of nationalregionalism, all partsequal, none predominating. This "ge-
neric"persona,so different fromWillRogers'slariat-twirling actor,is equally
remotefromtheethnicshtickof WoodyAllenand RichardPryoror theurban
neurosisofJoanRiversandDavid Brenner. He hasno direct,obvioussuccessors,
onlyhisimpersonators; thehumorofourcontemporary nightclubsis fragmented
-andtypecast. The foeofhumbug,explicitly rebelling againstoutworn Romantic
formsandthemes,he detestedhighairsandsmugcomplacency-putting himin
theprogression thathasledtothestand-up insultsofW.C. Fieldsas wellas Lenny
Bruce.
LearningfromArtemus Wardand others,Twainmastered discriminative les-
sons of theatricalityand publicity.Amongotherfeats,he contrived his public

4"Ahnebrink, TheBeginnings ofNaturalism,103, 144.

42Hubbell,WhoAre theMajor Writers?, 144.
43ForHemingway, see RichardBridgman,The ColloquialStylein America(New York:Oxford
Univ. Press, 1966), 129-30, 196-97, 202, 219, 227; and JesseBier, "A Note on Twain and
Hemingway,"MidwestQuarterly,21 (1980), 261-65, the latterof whichcomparesthe styleof
Huckleberry FinnandTheSunAlsoRises; amongothers,see forAnderson, RichardBridgman, The
Colloquial Stylein America,152-55, 159-60; G. Thomas Tanselle, "Anderson,Annotatedby
Brooks,"Notesand Queries(London),213 (Feb. 1968), 60-61; SherwoodAnderson's Memoirs:A
CriticalEdition,ed. RayLewisWhite(ChapelHill: Univ.ofNorthCarolina,1970),342; forWolfe,
PereyH. Boynton, AmericainContemporary Fiction(Chicago:Univ.ofChicagoPress,1940),220-21;
forFitzgerald,RobertSklar,F. ScottFitzgerald:TheLast Laocoon (New York:OxfordUniv.Press,
1967);forFaulkner, JesseBier,TheRiseandFall ofAmerican Humor(New York:Holt,Rinehart and
Winston,1968), 105, 138, 352.
 ofMarkTwain
TheImportance 49

personaso as to conveytheimpression of (feigned)laziness,lack of erudition,

easy success. If the current of
generation nonreading Americansis less familiar
thantheirliterate predecessors withthequalitiesof his lesserworks,and some-
timesevenwithhis greatest novels,at leasthe is oftenquotedfrompulpits,in
newspaper columns,andatlecturns. He hasgainedfavorwithacademicians while
retaininghisholdon thetasteoftheordinary reader,something thatPoe's fiction
accomplished but0. Henry'sfailedto bringoff.
MarkTwainenduresbecause he is greaterthananyof his possibleclassifi-
cations-crackerbarrel philosopher, literary comedian,worldtraveler,realist,
Naturalist,hoaxer,novelist,vernacularhumorist,after-dinner speaker-with
whichhe mightbe labeled. He did practicallyeverything thatwas expected
of a manof lettersin his age, and he generally acquittedhimselfwell in every
department. He gave his countrymen pridein themselves,theirhumor,their
Andheelevatedthestation
literature. ofhiscalling:amongTwain'sachievements,
oneofhisgrandest washissuccessinmaking literaryhumorseemlikea respectable
profession.His wealth,hisNookFarmhome,his fraternal relationswiththein-
fluentialand the lionized-these and othersignsof statuslaid a benediction
on hiscareerso lastingthatall subsequent authors ofcomicsketches, stories,and
novelsowe hima largedebt.He rescuedthefunnyman fromthesmudged-print
pagesofBillings,Phoenix,andNasbyandrestored himtothehonored tradition of
BenjaminFranklin, OliverWendellHolmes,andJamesRussellLowell.Moreover,
Twainmixedseriousnessand comedyso subtlyin workslike A Connecticut
Yankeein KingArthur'sCourtthathe himselfdid not alwaysunderstand his
initialintentions, and he thuseducatedpublishersand reviewersand readers
aboutthedeeperpossibilities of humor,preparing AmericanaudiencesforJohn
Cheever,KurtVonnegut, Jr.,ThomasBerger,JohnBarth,and others.
American literaturewouldhaveflourished without MarkTwain'scontributions.
Yetitwouldbe stuffier, less colorful,less redolent oftheriverandtheWest,less
alluring.He hasgivenus, alongwithrichimpressions oflifeonrafts,steamboats,
stagecoaches, railroadcars, and ocean ships,a reassurancethatwe are not
travelingintosome black hole of the future,thatwe have a renewableand
accessiblepastthatguarantees a saneandattainable future.
By finding amusement
inthewritings andspeechesofoneAmerican figureofthenineteenth century, we
assuagedisturbing anxietiesaboutourhistorical and culturalisolationwhenwe
contemplate withmisgivings thedawningage ofcomputer technology, biological
engineering, andgalactictransportation. If we can palpablytouchthesteamboat
pilot'swheelwithMarkTwain,thenour gripon thespaceshipcontrolsof the
twenty-firstcentury feelssureras we extendourcapacityto shuttlea supplyof
humorintothefarther reachesof humanhistory.