Mark Twain's White Suits

Listening to Mark Twain's autobiography, and he recounts this story about transitioning to wearing white, his second favorite clothing style, behind wild color:

Next after fine colors, I like plain white. One of my sorrows, when the summer ends, is that I must put off my cheery and comfortable white clothes and enter for the winter into the depressing captivity of the shapeless and degrading black ones. It is mid-October now, and the weather is growing cold up here in the New Hampshire hills, but it will not succeed in freezing me out of these white garments, for here the neighbors are few, and it is only of crowds that I am afraid. I made a brave experiment, the other night, to see how it would feel to shock a crowd with these unseasonable clothes, and also to see how long it might take the crowd to reconcile itself to them and stop looking astonished and outraged. On a stormy evening I made a talk before a full house, in the village, clothed like a ghost, and looking as conspicuous, all solitary and alone on that platform, as any ghost could have looked; and I found, to my gratification, that it took the house less than ten minutes to forget about the ghost and give its attention to the tidings I had brought. 

I am nearly seventy-one, and I recognize that my age has given me a good many privileges; valuable privileges; privileges which are not granted to younger persons. Little by little I hope to get together courage enough to wear white clothes all through the winter, in New York. It will be a great satisfaction to me to show off in this way; and perhaps the largest of all the satisfactions will be the knowledge that every scoffer, of my sex, will secretly envy me and wish he dared to follow my lead. 

In other words, he's nearly 71, he doesn't care anymore, he likes white, that's the way it's going to be, and...people get over it pretty quickly.

Via:
"8 October 1906: Paragraph 14," in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2. 2013, 2008. <http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=works/MTDP10363.xml;style=work;brand=mtp;chunk.id=dv0055#pa001821>

Mark Twain's Nom de guerre - First Use

Samuel Clemens' first use of the nom de guerre "Mark Twain" (?) It seems he assumed the name from Mississippi River pilot Captain Isaiah Sellers:

"I was a cub pilot on the Mississippi River then, and one day I wrote a rude and crude satire which was leveled at Captain Isaiah Sellers, the oldest steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River, and the most respected, esteemed, and revered. For many years he had occasionally written brief paragraphs concerning the river and the changes which it had undergone under his observation during fifty years, and had signed these paragraphs “Mark Twain” and published them in the St. Louis and New Orleans journals. In my satire I made rude game of his reminiscences. It was a shabby poor performance, but I didn’t know it, and the pilots didn’t know it. The pilots thought it was brilliant. They were jealous of Sellers, because when the gray-heads among them pleased their vanity by detailing in the hearing of the younger craftsmen marvels which they had seen in the long ago on the river, Sellers was always likely to step in at the psychological moment and snuff them out with wonders of his own which made their small marvels look pale and sick. However, I have told all about this in “Old Times on the Mississippi.”

"The pilots handed my extravagant satire to a river reporter, and it was published in the New Orleans True Delta. That poor old Captain Sellers was deeply wounded. He had never been held up to ridicule before; he was sensitive, and he never got over the hurt which I had wantonly and stupidly inflicted upon his dignity. I was proud of my performance for a while, and considered it quite wonderful, but I have changed my opinion of it long ago. Sellers never published another paragraph nor ever used his nom de guerre again."

Via: "10 September 1906: Paragraph 5," in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2. 2013, 2008. <http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=works/MTDP10363.xml;style=work;brand=mtp;chunk.id=dv0050#pa001690>

Mark Twain - A return to India

In the second volume of his autobiography, he expresses a desire to return to India, the only country he has visited that compels him to do so:

I am not acquainted with my own books, but I know Kipling’s—at any rate I know them better than I know anybody else’s books. They never grow pale to me; they keep their color; they are always fresh. Certain of the ballads have a peculiar and satisfying charm for me. To my mind, the incomparable Jungle Books must remain unfellowed permanently. I think it was worth the journey to India to qualify myself to read “Kim” understandingly and to realize how great a book it is. The deep and subtle and fascinating charm of India pervades no other book as it pervades “Kim;” “Kim”] is pervaded by it as by an atmosphere. I read the book every year, and in this way I go back to India without fatigue—the only foreign land I ever day-dream about or deeply long to see again.

Source:
"13 August 1906: Paragraph 9," in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2. 2013, 2008. <http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=works/MTDP10363.xml;style=work;brand=mtp;chunk.id=dv0039#pa001358>

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Marking for audio CD follow-up. Listening to Mark Twain's autobiography and learning details about the "making of" the autobiography. Twain remarked that Grant's memory was consistently accurate, so his account seems to reflect one of the authoritative accounts of the Civil War.

Mark Twain Autobiography, Volume 1: Memories of childhood

I sat and listened to Mark Twain's descriptions of his childhood home on a Thursday afternoon last week. I had the car windows open and had parked in the shade. A breeze cooled things considerably, making for a very pleasant time.

The following section represents one of my favorites, to date, describing his childhood area:

"My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It]: Paragraph 89," in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1. 2010, 2008. (http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=works/MTDP10362.xml;style=work;brand=mtp;chunk.id=d1e8913#d1e9096)

The Golden Arm

A folktale described by Mark Twain. It ends with a pause prior to the final sentence...if the speaker gets the timing right, it spooks the audience.

Karl Gerhardt - Sculpture of Ulysses S. Grant

http://www.twainquotes.com/Gerhardt/grantbustdetails.html

Listening to Mark Twain's autobiography. They discuss this work. Gerhardt's sculpture represents the last artwork made of U.S. Grant, during his lifetime, and, per the autobiography, represents the best likeness, in the opinion of family and close acquaintances.