Mark Twain led a full, fascinating and complex life as he captured the voice of American. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron Chernow delves into Samuel Clemens' life, works, and society. #Bookthreads #Booksky #BookBlogger #Bookstagram #BookReview #MarkTwain #PenguinPress #SamuelClemens #Edelweiss

http://bargain-sleuth.com/2025/06/27/%f0%9f%93%9a%f0%9f%93%9dmark-twain-by-ron-chernow-bookreview-penguinpress-arcreview-biography-authors-may2025books/

Twain Dreams

https://harpers.org/archive/2025/06/twain-dreams-samuel-clemens-john-jeremiah-sullivan/

#HackerNews #Twain #Dreams #literature #SamuelClemens #storytelling #dreams

There are three #modernist #writers whose #ShortStories remind me of each others', that I often wonder whether they read one another. No matter how unlikely it might be, given their different times and milieux. Here's the list, in rough chronological order:

* #SamuelClemens/ #MarkTwain.
* #BrianONolan/ #FlannOBrien/ #MilesNaGopaleen.
* #HermanCharlesBosman.

Seems most likely that Twain could have been read by the other two.

#JosephConrad fits in here somewhere too, I suspect.

There must be research into this kind of link. Modernist short stories are fundamentally important artefacts of the 20th Century, so this sort of thing must be known.

A Clemens Clap Back

A very complex person who made considerable observations on humanity was Samuel Clemens. His commentary and short stories, one of which he published as the diary of Eve, pushed the limits of censorship at the time. This statement to the press after his congressional testimony on copyright in 1906 is very fascinating. He was asked about images of Eve used in his book and the banning of this work by a library.

“The whole episode has rather amused me. I have no feeling of vindictiveness over the stand of the librarians there—I am only amused. You see, they did not object to my book; they objected to Lester Ralph’s pictures. I wrote the book; I did not make the pictures. I admire the pictures, and I heartily approve them, but I did not make them.

It seems curious to me—some of the incidents in this case. It appears that the pictures in Eve’s Diary were first discovered by a lady librarian. When she made the dreadful find, being very careful, she jumped at no hasty conclusions—not she—she examined the horrid things in detail. It took her some time to examine them all, but she did her hateful duty! I don’t blame her for this careful examination; the time she spent was, I am sure, enjoyable, for I found considerable fascination in them myself.

Then she took the book to another librarian, a male this time, and he, also, took a long time to examine the unclothed ladies. He must have found something of the same sort of fascination in them that I found. Now, if the pictures were so good as to occupy their attention so long, it seems to me that they were a little selfish not to permit the rest of the city a chance instead of shutting the volume out.”

#1906 #artisticFreedom #bannedBooks #bannedLiterature #censorship #congressionalTestimony #copyrightLaw #EveSDiary #freeSpeech #historicalCommentary #Humor #LesterRalph #librarianControversy #literaryHistory #MarkTwain #MarkTwainQuotes #publicLibrary #SamuelClemens #satire #societalNorms #USCopyrightReform