ONE OF
AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED AUTHORS DIES AT 74
By Madison Nef
Samuel Clemmens, better known as the
great humorist, Mark Twain, passed away in his New England home at 6:22 a.m.,
on April 21st, 1910. He died of a heart attack. For 14 years, Twain
had been through deep depression following the death of his favorite daughter,
Susy, and his wife, Livy. His other daughter, Jean, also died. Some say depression
led to the heart attack. I personally think that while that is probably true,
loneliness probably had something to do with it as well. Though loneliness
might have led up to the attack, during his last days, Twain was not alone. His
remaining family stayed by his bed until his last breath. Twain, in his last
days, was unconscious most of the time. In the time that he was awake, however,
he enjoyed reading Carlyle’s French Revolution. He had been reading the book
all year and kept re-reading it.
As he couldn’t speak clearly during his
last days, he would write his words down on paper. One of his most frequent
messages was: “hand me my glasses”. On the 20th, Twain seemed to
make an amazing recovery. Sadly, the recovery was a fake, and Twain fell back
into another coma, this time permanently. His last words were: “Get me my
glasses”.
The Career of
Mark Twain
Mark Twain is probably most famous for
his classic books and speeches. From Innocents Abroad to the very end, Mark
Twain kept his audiences laughing and entertained. Perhaps that is why his work
still lives on today, over a century after his death. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
have become classic children’s books and are now read by 10-13 year-olds around
the world. Teen and adult alike still enjoy reading some of Twain’s work for
older people, such as the Tragedy of Puddn’head Wilson, and Innocents Abroad. Twain
was also famous for taking lecture tours around the world. Twain was a
humorist, and could always keep his crowd in stitches. However, he had trained
himself to keep a straight face while doing his jokes and stories, making
believe that it was a very serious matter; nothing to joke about. Twain uses
the same deadpan humor in his novels. The reader is just above the level of the
book so as to see the humor in it, and to the character in the book, they seem
to see nothing funny, even if they have just said a joke. Twain also lets his
characters tell the story, such as in Huckleberry Finn, where he turns the
novel over to Huck. The story from that point on is told from Huck’s point of
view, which means from the perspective of a young, un-schooled boy. Twain went
to great lengths to make sure that even years after his death, his work could
not be copied. This ended after his last living descendant died without
children in the 20th century.
The Life of
Samuel Clemmens
Samuel Clemmens was a very different
person from Mark Twain. While in some sense they were the same people, they had
two different faces. Mark Twain was the face that Clemmens used to shield the
public from the sorrow and loneliness in his life. Clemmens wanted attention,
and wanted love. He wanted to be noticed by everyone. But that comes later.
Clemmens was born into a town on the Mississippi, and all his childhood wanted
nothing more than to leave. When he was 17, he left to pursue his dreams of
becoming a silver miner in the west. He ended up being a failure, but while in
the saloons in the west heard some outrageous tales that he would later use to
create his much-loved books. He returned to Connecticut and married his friends
younger sister, Livy. He told her she had to make him into a better person. He
had 4 children with her. His first child was a son, who died when he was but 3
months old. He also had 3 daughters,
Susy, Clara, and Jean. While he was going on one of his lecture tours, his
favorite daughter Susy died at their home from pneumonia. Livy tried to get
back in time to see her, but Clemmens received a telegram while she was heading
back that Susy had passed. This dealt a hard blow for Clemmens. Even worse, his
beloved wife Livy died 2 years later. This made Clemmens lonely, and he started
moping and writing stories about failure and depression. These stories were not
published until after his death. Yet another strike came when Clemmens was
forced to declare bankruptcy after investing all his money in the latest
invention, a type-setting machine that promised to bring in tons of money.
Clemmens’ plan was to strike it rich off of the machine and open up his own
publishing business, never having to write a book again. However, his plan
backfired when the type-setting machine failed to work and updates were never
made. Clemmens had invested in many other inventions before, but this one
sucked 30,000 dollars away from him and drove him into bankruptcy.
The End of
Twain???
Twain, in his time, was among the
greatest authors in America. In the 21st century, while he is not
the greatest author, he is among one of the most beloved of the 19th
century authors. His work lives on to this day, and with his work, Twain
himself lives on through the readers of his work. Twain was a literary genius
that will always have a special place in the hearts of all readers of his books.
Mark Twain and Samuel Clemmens both hold different places in the world; Mark
Twain, the greatly loved author and humorist, and Samuel Clemmens, the darker
side of Twain, the one that felt the emotional pain and the hardship. In a way,
Clemmens wore Twain as a mask for the time he was needed, and fooled everyone
into feeling happy, and making them believe that he himself felt this. As
Shakespeare once said, “the world is a stage, and we all wear many masks and
play many different parts”. After reading this, we must ask ourselves: was
Samuel Clemmens really a person to love? An idol to look up to? What do we
love, his books and speeches, or him? Ask yourself this. I think that we found
ourseleves looking up to Clemmens through his writing and speeches, and without
that, Clemmens would be a person that had barely any dignity and that would
have no one looking up to him except his children.
