Post
by Stephen Whiteside » Sun Oct 20, 2013 6:28 am
I've read a fair bit about the life of Mark Twain, but only a cluster of images remain.
He watched his father's post mortem examination unobserved through a key-hole.
His childhood ambition was to become a riverboat captain, and he may well have achieved that, instead of becoming a writer, if not for the intervention of the American Civil War.
The war quickly put an end to the riverboat trade.
Clemens' own war record is something of a mystery. It seems he spent about a week in active service before turning up in a silver-mining town on the west coast. After a failed suicide attempt, he began writing for the local paper.
Clemens' talked his younger brother into joining the river boats, too. Sadly, he was burnt to death in a fire on a paddle steamer, something that haunted Clemens for the rest of his life.
If you haven't done so already, read the first hundred pages of "Life on the Mississippi". He talks about his life as an apprentice paddle steamer captain. Pure gold...
Clemens had three daughters, and no sons. One daughter died of meningitis aged about 18. Another suffered from epilepsy, and drowned while having a fit in the bath aged about 30. The third married, but became estranged from him. She moved to Europe, and broke off all communications with him.
So many great writers have such sad personal lives...