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| | [[Image:Mark Twain.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Mark Twain]] | | [[Image:Mark Twain.jpg|thumb|right|240px|Mark Twain]] |
| | '''Samuel Langhorne Clemens''' (1835-1910), best known under the pen name '''Mark Twain''', was a great American writer and humorist. On his death, the ''New York Times'' wrote that "his personality and his humor have been an integral part of American life for so long that it has seemed almost impossible to realize an America without him.<ref>"His Countrymen's Tribute," The'' New York Times,'' April 22, 1910, p. 2</ref> Mark Twain was famous as both a writer and a performer, having toured many years as a comedic lecturer. His cynical witticisms earned him a reputation as one of America's foremost personalities. | | '''Samuel Langhorne Clemens''' (1835-1910), best known under the pen name '''Mark Twain''', was a great American writer and humorist. On his death, the ''New York Times'' wrote that "his personality and his humor have been an integral part of American life for so long that it has seemed almost impossible to realize an America without him.<ref>"His Countrymen's Tribute," The'' New York Times,'' April 22, 1910, p. 2</ref> Mark Twain was famous as both a writer and a performer, having toured many years as a comedic lecturer. His cynical witticisms earned him a reputation as one of America's foremost personalities. |
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| | + | Mark Twain's personal religious views are debatable. Publicly, he lampooned religion along with everything else, as expected in a cynical humorist. Privately, on his serious side, he was a devotee of Saint [[Joan of Arc]], and even spent twelve years researching and writing a biography of her that he called his "best and favorite work":<ref name="Joan">http://www.stjoan-center.com/twain/atheists.html</ref> |
| | + | {{cquote|I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none.}} |
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| | ==Publications== | | ==Publications== |
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| | *"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." <ref>''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' <sup>Page Number Needed</sup></ref> | | *"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." <ref>''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' <sup>Page Number Needed</sup></ref> |
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| | Many quips attributed to Mark Twain are not his, due to what Ralph Keyes call the "the flypaper effect." The habit of unclaimed comments "sticking" to famous quotable figures. He quotes a librarian as saying "if it's humorous and cynical, it must be Mark Twain."<ref>Keyes, Ralph (1992), ''Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations,'' p 24.</ref> A famous disputed quote is "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." This has long been attributed to Twain. According to Keyes, quotation sleuths traced it to an unsigned editorial in the ''Hartford Courant'' and decided it was most likely by Charles Dudley Warner. However, there is evidence suggesting it may really be Twain's remark after all.<ref>Keyes p 194-5. Keyes also notes that the quotation, as printed in the ''Courant,'' actually opened with the words "A well known American writer once said," and that a 1923 memoir by a journalist who had known Twain mentioned never having seen in print Mark's saying about the weather</ref> | | Many quips attributed to Mark Twain are not his, due to what Ralph Keyes call the "the flypaper effect." The habit of unclaimed comments "sticking" to famous quotable figures. He quotes a librarian as saying "if it's humorous and cynical, it must be Mark Twain."<ref>Keyes, Ralph (1992), ''Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations,'' p 24.</ref> A famous disputed quote is "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." This has long been attributed to Twain. According to Keyes, quotation sleuths traced it to an unsigned editorial in the ''Hartford Courant'' and decided it was most likely by Charles Dudley Warner. However, there is evidence suggesting it may really be Twain's remark after all.<ref>Keyes p 194-5. Keyes also notes that the quotation, as printed in the ''Courant,'' actually opened with the words "A well known American writer once said," and that a 1923 memoir by a journalist who had known Twain mentioned never having seen in print Mark's saying about the weather</ref> |
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| | ==Religion== | | ==Religion== |
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| − | Mark Twain was a practicing Presbyterian, but a series of personal tragedies in his life, namely the deaths of his son, wife, and two of his daughters, would result in his later works being particularly anti-religious. His books ''Letters from the Earth'' and ''The Mysterious Stranger'', both of which Twain was afraid to publish during his lifetime, contained numerous attacks on [[Christianity]]. Some of his quotes on the subject are listed below. | + | Mark Twain was a practicing Presbyterian and a devotee of Saint [[Joan of Arc]]. Historians debate his personal religious beliefs, which if publicized could have hampered his successful career as a humorist. A series of personal tragedies in his life, namely the deaths of his son, wife, and two of his daughters, could have pushed him closer or further from [[God]]. Twain's favorite book was the biography he wrote admiring Saint [[Joan of Arc]], but Twain also wrote ''Letters from the Earth'' and ''The Mysterious Stranger'', both of which he was afraid to publish during his lifetime and which contained criticisms of [[Christianity]]. Some of his quotes on the subject are listed below. |
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| | + | *Saint [[Joan of Arc]] was "the most extraordinary person the human race has ever produced."<ref name="Joan"/> |
| | *"Faith is believing something you know ain't so." [''Following the Equator''] | | *"Faith is believing something you know ain't so." [''Following the Equator''] |
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