Beth Wooden is the senior assortment improvement librarian for the Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries. Electronic mail her at readingforfun@fvrl.org.
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Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorn Clemens) died 115 years in the past, on April 21, 1910.
He’s extensively thought to be certainly one of America’s best authors, particularly in humor and journey writing.
Twain was 74 when he died, which in all probability shocked him in mild of his early years. Born two months prematurely, he was a sickly baby whose mom was all the time attempting new well being cures on him.
In line with the Britannica web site, when she was in her 80s Twain requested his mom if she felt uneasy when he was rising up, and she or he asserted that she did. “Afraid I wouldn’t live?” he requested. “No,” she replied, “afraid you would.”
A brand new biography “Mark Twain” comes out Could 25. The e-book has acquired rave critiques; not shocking as it’s written by Ron Chernow, a Pulitzer Prize winner and creator of “Alexander Hamilton,” foundation for the hit musical.
One other Twain connection is to the e-book “James” by Percival Everett (2024), winner of the Nationwide Ebook Award. Everett reimagines “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in his wealthy retelling by way of the eyes of Jim, an enslaved man and a minor character in Twain’s unique.
John F. Kennedy Heart for the Performing Arts provides out an annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The prize honors a person who has “had an impact on American society in ways similar to” Mark Twain. The recipient for 2025 is Conan O’Brien.
Listed under are a few of Mark Twain’s best-loved satire and humor writings.
Novels
“The Gilded Age” (1873): Co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner, it is a biting satire about American society within the post-Civil Battle period.
“The Innocents Abroad” (1881): Comedic chronicle of Twain’s five-month steamship voyage.
“A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court” (1889): Humorous time-travel story a few mechanic from Twain’s time who makes an attempt to modernize medieval England.
“Letters from the Earth” (1962): Letters from Devil to the archangels Gabriel and Michael.
Brief tales
These tales could be present in varied brief story collections, and a few can be found on-line.
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (1865): Also referred to as “Jim Smiley and the Jumping Frog,” that is in all probability Twain’s most well-known brief story. It facilities upon a gambler who will guess on something.
“The Story of the Bad Little Boy Who Didn’t Come to Grief” (1865): The title says all of it. Twain needed to distinction the kid in his story to typical Sunday Faculty tales the place dire penalties occurred to the primary characters.
“The Million Pound Bank Note” (1893): An impoverished traveler turns into the topic of a guess between two rich brothers. This story could be the foundation for the film “Trading Places” with Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd.
“The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg” (1899): Examines the sometimes-hypocritical underbelly of human nature.
Let’s half with a quote, lets?
“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” — Mark Twain
