Mark Twain and Elmira, NY

     VINCENT has his fans; and they anticipate seeing him in each weekly Monthly Missive. (Is that an oxymoron?) 
So Presto!   Here he is, sans top hat, on a quiet spring day at home.

I didn't know, really, until recently, that you can enlarge this page by clicking on Control key and the "+" key at the same time. Magic.

                 

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     You’re probably aware that the Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume 1 was published recently and resided briefly on the best seller lists. Being an admirer of one of America’s greatest literary treasures, I bought two copies of the 736 page tome; one to be presented to someone I knew would enjoy Mr. Clemens’s unique gifts as much as I do. The recipient surprised me with the same book!
One of the stipulations made by Twain when he finally decided he had the ‘right’ way to  write his autobiography (“talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment”) was that much of what he wrote for it remain unpublished for 100 years. He said, “By then, I’d be dead, and unaware, and indifferent.” From what I’ve read so far, it’s obvious that some of the comments about his contemporaries just might embarrass Mr. Twain were he to meet up with his colleagues . . . Somewhere . . . Somehow.
The author did not write the Introduction, which by itself is 58 pages. I plowed through it; There’s much interesting back story stuff, at times redundant to the point of boring. But what I’ve encountered since then-- I’m on page 288-- has rewarded me with some choice observations by the master observer of his fellow man . . . and woman.


Seque now, if you will, to Elmira, NY; a city where Mark Twain is revered to this day. Major parts of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, and numerous short stories were written in an octagonal study which was given to him by the his sister-in-law Susan Crane and her husband Theodore. That was in 1874; in 1952 that study was moved from Quarry Farm, outside Elmira, to the campus of Elmira College. About that time I was doing a weekly cartoon feature for the Elmira Sunday Telegram: It was termed Telegram Telescope. One September version featured the study. I dug a copy of the Telescope out of the file cabinet. 

I know, folks are asking, “Does that guy ever throw anything away?”
Next week, just one more Telescope.