Mark Twain Reader and Critic of Travel Literature

Author(s): George H. Herrick

Source: Mark Twain Journal, Vol. 10, No. 1 (SUMMER, 1955), pp. 9-10, 22-23
Published by: Alan Gribben
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41640799
Accessed: 04-01-2019 04:02 UTC

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 Mark Twain Reader and Critic of
Travel Literature
George H. Herrick
That Mark Twain was a reader and critic beautiful, at the same time that the
author is careful not to say that it is,
of travel literature has been partially ob^
scured by his fame as an author of travelin plain Saxon. But a careful analysis
books and as a novelist. Nevertheless, he read
of these descriptions will show that the
materials of which they are formed are
and read widely in the realm of travel litera-
not individually beautiful and cannot
ture. Concerning his reading, Mark Twain
said in his later years : be formed into combinations that are
beautiful.
I like history, biography, travels,
curious facts and happenings, and It was Mark Twain's contention that some,
science.1 biased by their reverence for the Holy Land,
wrote inaccurately ; that others, fearing un-
Actually travel accounts seem to have popularity
in- if they did otherwise, painted it
terested him throughout his lifetime. Duringin magical terms ; and that still others simply
the early days when he was a type-setterwished
for to deceive. To Mark Twain the truth
the Hannibal Journal , Twain doubtless read
should suffice and there should be no attempt
its articles on Hawaii, England, and Ger- to gild those elements which have no beauty.4
many. It is possible, too, that his entire life
was influenced by Lieut. William Herndon's One of these descriptive books of the Holy
and Lardner Gibbons' Exploration of Land the evidently shocked Twain's literary sen-
Valley of the Amazon. This popular travel sitivities to the core with the following lines :
book of the 1850s may well have provided
. . . Flowers bloom in this terrestrial
the impetus for his memorable embarkation
on the Paul Jones ? paradise, once beautiful and verdant
with waving trees ; singing birds enchant
Even a casual reading of The Innocents the ear ; the turtle-dove soothes with its
soft note; the crested lark sends up its
Abroad , Life on the Mississippi , and Follow-
ing the Equator will disclose Mark Twain's song toward heaven, and the grave and
interest in other travel books. These three stately stork inspires the mind with
works contain many quotations gathered thought and leads it on to meditation
from miscellaneous travel publications, and and repose. Life here was once idyllic,
it is likely that his reading was still more charming, here were no rich, no poor, no
extensive than indicated in his writing.3 Re-high, no low. It was a world of ease,
grettably, many of his quotations are appar- simplicity, and beauty ; now it is a scene
ently included merely to fill up space. His of desolation and misery.
commentaries on several, however, provide Weacan almost hear Mark Twain declare:
valuable insight into his criteria for judging
the literature of travel. This is not an ingenious picture. It is
the worst I ever saw. It describes in
In the latter half of The Innocents Abroad elaborate detail what it terms a "terres-
he quoted many passages from travel vol- trial paradise" and closes with the start-
umes on the Holy Land. Concerning these ling information that this paradise is
he said: "a scene of desolation and misery ."5
Nearly every book concerning Galilee Within the pages of Life on the Mississippi
and its lake describes the scenery as are quotations from descriptions of the river
beautiful. No - not always as straight- by Charles Augustus Murray, Alexander
forward as that. Sometimes the impres- Mackay, Capt. Basil Hall, Mrs. Trollope,
sion intentionally conveyed is that it is and Capt. Marryat. Concerning these de-
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 scriptions, Tw
serted into the mouth of the old gentleman
describing the river between La Crosse and
Each tourist took notes and went
St. Paul.8 Strangely enough, his language is
home and published a book - a bookalmost as florid as that which Twain ridi-
which was usually calm, truthful, culed
rea- in the special correspondent of the
sonable, kind; but which seemed just
Times-Democrat who, writing of a trip made
the reverse to our tender-footed pro- by a relief boat during a flood, said :
genitors. . . . The emotions produced in
those foreign breasts by these aspectsOn Saturday, early in the morning,
were not all formed on one pattern, ofthe beauty of the place graced our
course; they had to be various, along cabin, and proud of her fair freight the
at first, because the earlier tourists gallant little boat glided up the bayou.
were obliged to originate their own emo- About this Mark Twain commented:
tions, whereas in older countries one can
always borrow emotions from one's Twenty-two words to say the ladies
predecessors. And, mind you, emotions came aboard and the boat shoved out up
are among the toughest things in the the creek, is a clean waste of ten good
world to manufacture out of whole words, and is also destructive of com-
cloth; it is easier to manufacture sevenpactness of statement.9
facts than one emotion.6
Later, in Following the Equator, Twain,
These travel accounts are not, however, who often did not overstrain for economy in
flawless in Twain's opinion. Capt. Marryat words, praised the Rev. Mr.. Parker's com-
in A Diary of America made the unfortunate pact and lucid Guide to Benares ."10 Mark
mistake of listing the catfish as one of "the Twain was also struck by the "vivid and
coarsest and most uneatable fish." To this
moving picture of the veneration for Benares
Mark Twain, with the characteristic love held
of by the Hindu as presented by the Rev.
a midwesterner for catfish, replied that Mr. Parker.11 Following the Equator abounds
Capt.
Marryat's description of the river was with passages quoted from travel works, but
"marred in the matter of statistics by a book
in- that especially appealed to him was
accuracies ; for the catfish is a plentySketches
good of Australian Life by Mrs. Camp-
enough fish for anybody ..." Capt. Mar- bell Praed. Af^er including excerpts from
her book, Twain said:
ryat also stated that the panther is "almost
impervious to man." Twain evidently forgot
You notice that Mrs. Praed knows
or omitted the word almost and flatly main-
tained that "there are no panthers that her
are art. She can place a thing before
'impervious to man'." At any rate, one who so that you can see it.12
you
reads Capt. Marryat's account of the Mis-
Three of the other writers quoted by Mark
sissippi will likely agree with Mark Twain
Twain are Satya Chandra Mukerji, Sir Wil-
when he said:
liam Wilson Hunter, and Bayard Taylor.
All have written accounts of the Taj Mahal
It is pretty crude literature for a which Twain believed well written and cor-
man accustomed to handling a pen ;
rect. Yet about the Taj Mahal he wrote:
still as a panorama of the emotions sent
weltering through this noted visitor's ... I had read a great deal too much
breast by the aspect and traditions of about it. I saw it in the daytime, I saw
the "great common sewer" it has a it in the moonlight, I saw it near at
value.7 hand, I saw it* from a distance; and I
knew all the time that of its kind it was
Other descriptions that Mark Twain evi- the wonder of the world, with no corn-
dently thought had value were those taken
from a railroad advertising booklet and in- continued on page 22)
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 prodigious. reached the unquestionable conclusion
For that
1951, a description can be correctly written and
reported
three American union members - 10 million still convey to the reader an exaggerated
concept because of the differing word asso-
out of a total of 15 million - are organized
on the AFL basis and in unions that derive ciations in the minds of reader and writer.13
in unbroken descent from Samuel Gompers." Still another interesting criticism of a
travel book is found in Mark Twain's com-
A 14-year-old cigar-rolling immigrant, he
had come to our shores and had risen Hora- mentary on William Dean Howells' Venetian
tio Alger-like to the heights of confidanteLife
of . Twain, always an admirer of Howells,
quoted a lengthy passage describing Venice
five U.S. presidents, colorful and forceful
during a snowfall and added:
leader of millions of the toiling masses, and
the creative spark which fired many a social The spirit of Venice is there; of a
or economic idea into explosive national city where Age and Decay, fagged with
action in fields where human problems werethe distributing damage and rçpulsive-
conccrned. ness among the other cities of the planet
in accordance with the policy and busi-
In a respect, the basic democratic philoso- ness of their profession, come for rçst
phy of his nearly 60 years' devotion to and play between the seasons, and treat
Labor's cause was expressed in his dying themselves to the luxury and relaxation
words : "God bless our American institu-
of sinking the shop and inventing and
tions. May they grow better and better." squandering charms all about, instead
Here, too, he accented the paternal nature
of abolishing such as they find, as is
their habit when not on vacation. 10
of his moderate and conservative AFL guid-
ance. But his dying had perhaps also re-
The foregoing remarks about travel litera-
vealed an inherent weakness - his inability
ture can be sifted and from them epnerges a
to harmonize some of his 19th-century-born
statement of Mark Twain's critical stand-
theories and program of action with more ards for that literature. First, a travel book
liberal political changes and industrial modi-
should be accurate and truthful. Failures in
fications already bursting forth on this theled to his condemning the Palestine travel
American scene.
books. Possession of accuracy and truth re-
Yet, withal, Americans always will re-sulted in Mark Twain's praise of the Missis-
member Samuel Gompers as a dedicated sippi River descriptions. Second, a travel
account
leader of great personal devotion and in- should be clear and compact. Mrs.
Praed
tegrity - Labor's great pioneer, crusader was lauded for her clarity and the
Rev. Mr. Parker for this quality and brevity.
and statesman. As a man of far-sighted ideas
and intense action he did so much to make The correspondent's account in the Times-
Democrat drew Twain's disfavor for its
organized labor respectable, powerful and
glossy verbiage. Third, a work on travel
socially and economically beneficial to its
members and, indirectly, to all its othershould be endowed with literary artistry.
publics. His commentaries on the descriptions of the
Mississippi, the views of the Taj Mahal, and
MARK TWAIN, READER AND CRITIC the picture of Venice illustrate this. Although
the problem presented by the differences in
(Continued from page 10) word associations of reader and author will
petitor now and no possible future com- always be present, Mark Twain believed that
petitor; and yet it was not my Taj. the writer who produces a travel book that
My Taj had been built by excitable is accurate, concise, and artistic has suc-
literary people ; it was solidly lodged in ceeded. Few will disagree with Twain in this
my head and I could not blast it out. respect.
By a questionable numerical device he then
1. Edward Wagenknecht, Mark Twain, The Man and
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 His Work, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1935,
p. 34.
about each other before the audience, and
2. Cyril Clemens, Young Sam Clemens, Newton, the audience thought it only kindly banter.
Mass., The Graphic Press, 1942, pp. 60, 61.
3. DeLancey Ferguson, Mark Twain: Man and Leg-
end, Indianapolis, New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 1943, But never did they speak when they met,
p. 211. altho they traveled together five thousand
4. Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, vol. II, New
York, Harpers, 1911, pp. 242, 243. miles, ate at the same table and stopped at
5. Ibid., pp. 241. 242. the same hotels. Whenever Cable would
6. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi, New York,
Bantam Books, 1945, p. 194.
7. Ibid., pp. 195^197.
enter a room where Mark and the Major
8. Ferguson, op. cit., p. 211. were, the entrance of Cable was the cue for
9. Twain, Life on the Mississippi, pp. 309. 310.
10. Mark Twain, Following the Equator, vol. II, New Mark to indulge him in a knock-wood demon-
York, Harper's 1899, p. 158. stration.
11. Ibid., p. 162.
12. Ibid., vol. I, p. 193.
13. Ibid., vol. II, pp. 249-260. Mark says he holds no enmity toward
14. Mark Twain, "William Dean Howells", What Is George, but he has ever refused to apologize,
Man? and Other Essays, Stormfield Edition, New
York, Harper's, 1929, p. 228. and thinks that George should apologize to
him for trying to take away his religion,
TWAIN, CABLE AND THE which consists in Every Man Minding His
PHILISTINE Own Business. On the other hand, Cable
has given Mark up as Lost - irretrievably
(Continued from page 14) Lost. And there the matter rests.6
But the big man, still smoking, Muchfinally
in the tale is quite obviously the
said, "George Cable, inventor ofresult
the of Creole
Pond's or Hubbard's inventive
- you keep your religion and be damned,
genius ;7 nevertheless, this possibly apocry-
and I'll keep mine."
phal story, in the light of the known dis-
Then Mark indulged him in agreements
a demon-and grievances that came be-
stration of ill-concealed weariness,
tween andthego-"twins," cannot be wholly dis-
ing to the door, he unlocked itmissed
and called
as completely incredible.
in Major Pond and requested him to Lorch,
1. Fred takeCable and His Reading Tour with
the runt out and buy him a Scotch High-
Mark Twain," AL XXIII (January 1952), 471-486;
Guy A. Cardwell, Twins of Genius (Michigan State,
Ball to steady his nerves. 1953); Dixon Wecter (ed.), The Love Letters of Mark
Twain (New York, 1949), pp 218-240.
Cable was furious with disappointment
2. Card well, "Mark Twain's 'Row' with George
Cable," MLQ XIII (December 1952), 363-371.
and rage. He declared Mark had grossly
3. Major J. B. Pond, Eccentricities of Genius (New
insulted him. He protested that all he had York, 1900), p. 231; Cardwell, Twins . . ., p. 9.
4. Pond, p. 370.
said and done was done in love, and for 5. Ibid., 368-371. Pond refers to Hubbard as a
"remarkable personality."
Mark's benefit, and he declared he would 6. Elbert Hubbard, "Heart to Heart Talks with
Philistines by the Pastor of His Flock," Philistine
not again speak to Mark until he apolo- XII (April 1901), 146-149.
gized. 7. Cable, far from deliberately avoiding Twain and
his "sinful ways," kept Twain company in the smok-
Major Pond was sorely troubled. There ing compartment because he admired the way Twain
smoked and cursed. Furthermore, when Twain re-
were seventeen dates ahead, and if these quested his colleague to refrain from reading the
Bible aloud, "Cable retired courteously." He did not
men parted now it meant the loss of thou- attempt to convert his companion. Albert Bigelow
Paine, Mark Twain (New York and London, 1912), II,
sands of dollars. The Major begged Mark p. 784. Also, it has been shown that both men ex-
to apologize and heal the breach, but Mark pressed friendship for each other shortly after the
conclusion of the tour when the "perverted" stories
smiled grimly and said the little Creole began to circulate. (Card well Twins . . .).
catcher could go to the devil he believed
in, for all of him. CHARLES HENRY SMITH
Yet Major Pond, by his masterly diplo- (Continued from page 12)
macy, managed to hold the combination
together, and every night for three weeks of Judge Nathan Hutchins in Lawren
Mark Twain and George Cable read from In due time he became a lawyer and
the same platform, and made sly remarks he was on a law case in Virginia e
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