Huck's Take

New Year's Rearranging

2008-01-02T14:26:00.000-06:00

Figuring that The Chicago Bears and Mark Twain don't make for ideal blog partners, I'm shifting things around a bit. My initial blog, this one, will be reserved for posts related to Twain; while a new blog, Drafting Devin, deals explicitly with the Bears and the NFL draft. As such, expect to see a few transplants (i.e., relocated posts) early on before both grow into regular mediums...

Mark Twain and the Stormfield Home Video

2007-12-18T13:44:00.000-06:00

"It is the most out of the world and peaceful and tranquil and in every way satisfactory home I have had experience of in my life."

Mark Twain spent the last 23 months of his life in Redding, Connecticut, in this massive estate he called Stormfield. Amateur Historian Brent M. Colley has done a fine job documenting some of the significant (and sad) events of Twain's final years. Of particular interest is the burglary of the estate, documented at Colley's site and also in the New York Times' archives. And, since we've paid previous notice to other 'notices' in this blog, the following was supposedly tacked to Stormfield's front door sometime after the event:

NOTICE !

To the Next Burglar
There is only plated ware in this house now and henceforth.
You will find it in that brass thing in the dining room over in the corner by the basket of kittens. If you want the basket, put the kittens in the brass thing.
Do not make a noise - it disturbs the family.
You will find rubbers in the front hall by that thing which has the umbrellas in it, - chiffonier, I think they call it, or pergola, or something like that. Please close the door when you go away !

VERY TRULY YOURS,
S. L. CLEMENS

Albert Bigelow Paine's widely read, three volume biography dedicates numerous chapters to the Clemens' family life in Redding (an e-version of the Paine texts can be found here). Of most interest regarding Twain and the Stormfield estate, however, might be the following footage - filmed a mere year before his death - by none other than Thomas Edison:

As one could well imagine, this is the only footage of Mark Twain on film. Better versions can be found in the multimedia section at Hannibal.net.

You Don't Know About Me...

2007-11-24T15:44:00.000-06:00

For lack of a better introduction, I suppose a sivilized tip of a cap will do. But beginnings are overrated anyways....always pretending that they really are, in fact, beginnings. I might contend this is rather a tangent, veering off into where it came from: another tangent. And tangents are inevitably (and geometrically) wed to circles, which ominously have no beginnings.

But I wander into territory - not Huck's, mind you - that borders on the philosophical musings of dreamers and madmen. I might be both, but it is not my intent to go there. Not yet. As such, in "beginning" this blog, perhaps it best that I employ the same notice that begins this little boy's book:

NOTICE
Persons attempting to find a motive in this
narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting
to find a moral in it will be banished;
persons attempting to find a plot in it will be
shot.
BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR
Per G.G., CHIEF OF ORDNANCE

We can't quite say whether Twain, his editor, or Huck himself can lay claim to these words. It is, after all, Huck's book; if he'd 'a' knowed about what trouble it was to make a book he wouldn't 'a' tackled it, and though he ain't a-going to no more, he told a fine tale, all in all. But the historians know that these admonitory words were added after the publication of his adventures, sometime in 1885, in response to the criticism which slung slander at this supposedly infamous text with "derogatory morals" and "coarse language." Coarse, maybe, but aren't we all? Twain would think so. And I think Huck learns this along the river.

But in line with the original skeptics, the Denver Public Library tried barring Huck Finn from their collection in 1902. In response, they received the following telegraph (quoted in part):

There's nobody for me to attack in this matter even with soft and gentle ridicule -- and I shouldn't ever think of using a grown up weapon in this kind of a nursery. Above all, I couldn't venture to attack the clergymen whom you mention, for I have their habits and live in the same glass house which they are occupying. I am always reading immoral books on the sly, and then selfishly trying to prevent other people from having the same wicked good time.

No, if Satan's morals...are preferable to Huck's, let Huck's take a back seat; they can stand any ordinary competition, but not a combination like that. And I'm not going to defend them, anyway.

Sincerely yours,
S. L. Clemens.
York Harbor, Aug. 14, 1902.

referenced at "Mark Twain on 'Huck Finn.'" New York Tribune (Aug. 22, 1902)

This doesn't answer our mystery of who penned the preliminary 'notice', but surely lends credibility to Huck's morals (aka, Huck's take), and I think it's appropriate to make reference here. In regards to the ordinance, one Robert H. Hirst, the fine curator of the Mark Twain Papers (located at Cal's Bancroft Library), proposes that our "Chief G. G." was possibly the Clemenses' family butler (certainly not his own words, but a referential nod to him by Twain). More can be read on Hirst's interesting proposition here.

Whoever it is, this beginning was added after the ending, and thus activating our nonsensical paradox. It all makes me wonder how Huck would feel, knowing that these stern warnings were added to his story. His morals are surely the right ones, and I can't tell if he'd prefer they be made known in the fashion of a Colonel Sherburn - on top of a soapbox - or if he'd prefer to quietly drop them in his pocket and light out. I have the same dilemma myself.

As usual, however, I digress. I was in search of a proper introduction. What I or anyone else can expect from this blog, if anything, is a concisely organized, tangled mess. And I apologize for that. I can't promise cohesive content other than that which begins - er, tangents - from this often scattered head of mine. But I offer a preliminary thanks if you've stumbled upon (and read) Huck's Take. And even though this first post may seem like a beginning, you and I been there before.