Letters from the Earth by Mark Twain

Mark Twain is one of my favorite American authors and I was surprised upon reading this book that I had not heard of it before, even though I had read the classics by him, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and I loved those. Letters from the Earth is a short work, that basically takes religion and the hypocrisy of society to task.

Anti-Stratfordian Mark Twain, wrote "Is Shakespeare Dead?" shortly before his death in 1910. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The story is told from Satan’s point of view upon visiting earth. He is writing back to the other angels in heaven and reporting on what he sees on earth, how the humans behave and their beliefs. He does not hold any punches and still manages to be funny. It has many memorable lines and insights.

Letters From The Earth - Complete Edition

The commentary by Satan is very harsh and seems contrary to Twains, more humorous writings, but according to Wikipedia:

Letters from the Earth is one of Mark Twain's posthumously published works. The essays were written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and one of his daughters.

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One of the many quotes that I marked was:

“Adam and Eve entered the world naked and unashamed - naked and pure-minded; and no descendant of theirs has ever entered otherwise, All have entered naked, unashamed, and clean in mind. The have entered it modet. They had to acquire immodesty and the soiled mind; there was no other way to get it. A Christian mother’s first duty is to soil her child’s mind, and she does not neglect it. her lad grows up to be a missionary, and goes to the innocent savage and to the civilized Japanese, and soils their minds. Whereupon they adopt immodesty, they conceal their bodies, they stop bathing naked together.”

Download a sample and read some of Mark Twain’s most honest writings from a time when even America’s leading humorist could not publish such biting criticism.

See my other posts by Twain:
Tom Sawyer
Autobiography
Biography

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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Free
Published 1876

Mark Twain was a humorist and satirist who achieved worldwide acclaim while still alive. For more on Mark Twain see my post on his Biography and Autobiography.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is one of Mark Twain's most famous novels. The book follows Tom Sawyer and his friends growing up in a town next to the Mississippi river and all the adventures they experience. The characters are loosely based on Mark Twain’s childhood and his friends. Tom Sawyer was written as a children’s novel and Mark Twain uses this as a means to express his social commentary. Using a child’s innocence and simplicity he is able to point out the sometimes childish and irrational norms of society.

“Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.”

Seeing the world through a child's worldview, Twain is able to point out that society does not always operate on logical and wise principles.

“Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it -- namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.”

Kindles
Even while pointing out a flaw of society, Twain manages to insert humor into his book. Mark Twain was appealing to the child in his readers and what better way than to remind us of the fun we had as children. We never laugh as much as we did when we were young.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a tribute to childhood. Mark Twain uses the book to introduce characters and themes that he will explore further in the sequel to Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Mark Twain was a great American writer who added depths of meaning to a great American novel. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer can be enjoyed by children and adults alike.





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Autobiography of Mark Twain

Mark Twain
Autobiography of Mark Twain - $9.79
2010

Mark Twain had a knack for delivering the unexpected. He made a name for himself as a journalist while not writing the stories he set out to. He would procrastinate until the last minute then turn in something different to his editor. This was a nightmare to his editor but exactly what the people wanted. He was a very popular writer in his time because even though he was a humorist he never attacked people in a negative way.

Twain knew what he was writing in his autobiography and asked that it not be printed until 100 years after his death. He did not want to diminish his popular persona. He said he wouldn't care what people thought about him 100 years. He also thought that if he wasn't being discussed 100 years later this would be a way of making himself relevant. No one could of guessed that he would still be as widely read 100 years after his death as he was when he was a very popular living writer.

Mark Twain was always tactful. He could make someone feel important even when insulting them.

"This book is not a revenge-record. When I build a fire under a person in it, I do not do it merely because of the enjoyment I get out of seeing him fry, but because he is worth the trouble. It is then a compliment, a distinction; let him give thanks and keep quiet. I do not fry the small, the commonplace, the unworthy."

The autobiography is compiled of things he wrote that he did not want published as well as writings specifically written to be included here.

"It is a system which is a complete and purposed jumble — a course which begins nowhere, follows no specific route, and can never reach an end while I am alive, for the reason that if I should talk to the stenographer two hours a day for a hundred years, I should still never be able to set down a tenth part of the things which have interested me in my lifetime."

He wanted the autobiography published 100 years after his death but his estate published it several times before. Twain published a few chapters that he thought acceptable before he died.

Chapters from My Autobiography - Free

Here is a previous version of the autobiography. This is not the new edited version but is very close and much cheaper.

Autobiography of Mark Twain - $2.99

This is the second piece in the Mark Twain series. Knowing the background of a writer will help in understanding some of the points and in getting a better understanding. By reading the Henderson Biography on Twain and the Autobiography, you will be ready to dive into the Mark Twain library.

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Mark Twain

Archibald Henderson
Mark Twain Biography- Free
1911

I have been reading this really great biography on Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson. The biography was published a year after Twain’s death in 1910. Henderson personally knew Twain and wrote the biography from his experiences and from the interviews of people who knew Twain at important points in his life.

Henderson was a great admirer of Mark Twain, or Samuel Langhorne Clemens as he was born. He appreciated his humor and recounts many stories about Twain that relate to his writings. He recounts childhood stories from Twain’s life and ties them to Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

“The cave, so graphically described in Tom Sawyer, was one of Sam’s favourite haunts; and his first sweetheart was Laura Hawkins, the Becky Thatcher of Tom’s admiration.”

Henderson also explains why Samuel Clemens chose the pen name Mark Twain. Twain was a river boat pilot for two and a half years. You have to mark “twain” regularly to find out the depth of the water so that the boat does not run aground. He chose Mark Twain because it was shorter than Samuel Clemens and because it meant nothing to 99% of Americans at the time. He was reporting for newspapers and didn't want to affect what people read by writing under a name that they knew already. In his last years, Twain commented that he liked that he added meaning to the name Mark Twain and that people all over the world now knew the name.

There are many great stories about Twain in the biography and the main reason for the book seems to be to argue that Mark Twain is not just a popular author but that his works are works of literature. Henderson compared Twain to Tolstoy and says that the main difference between the two is that Twain used humor to reach more people with his writings. Twain was considered a humorist but should be considered an important writer as well. Twain remains popular today, over 100 years after his death and is read and studied from elementary school through universities. Henderson was one of the first people to write about how important Twain was to literature and history seems to agree with him.

When studying literature it is always helpful to get a background on the author of the work. Knowing where and how the author is approaching writing helps to understand the themes presented in the work. For example, knowing that Twain was a humorist who makes light or pokes fun at serious issues will help to understand his use of the “N” word in Huckleberry Finn. He does not use the word because he was a racist, he puts the word in the mouth of a child and shows the disconnect between the word and meaning to a child. Huck Finn was using the word because society used the word but he was coming from a place of love for the run away slave. Society, at the time, was using the word as a racist label and Twain was being satirical in using it. Maybe, if people knew more about Twain’s intention, Huckleberry Finn will stop being banned in schools for the flagrant use of the “N” word.

Henderson argues that Twain is not just a great American writer but one of the most important writers in the world. Twain has certainly lived up to the hype. Mark Twain is one of my favorite authors and I know that I cannot praise him as much as I should. As Twain said himself, 

“he feels embarrassed accepting compliments because the complimenter never says enough!” 

This is a great biography for those that have not yet read the works of Mark Twain and also for those that have read a lot. This is the first in a series on Mark Twain posts. Stay tuned for the next one!

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