Throwback Thursday: Mark Twain

Morning, Prosers, 

This weeks TBT is a hat tipping tribute to Mr. Mark Twain. Sit back, relax, and enjoy.

I reckon Samuel Langhorne Clemens changed ‘is name t’Mark Twain simply ’cause it just rolled off th’tongue bett’r.

He was born on th’thirtieth day o’ November in the year one-thousand, eight-hundred ‘n’ thirty-five, in the United States of America, on the same day Halley’s Comet made i’s way t’Earth. And y’know what? Mr. Twain done predicted he’d die th’same day that comet returned, and that he did, on th’twenty-first day o’ April in th’year one-thousand, nine-hundred ‘n’ ten. He was a talker, a entrepreneur, a publisher, ‘n’ a writer, most important.

Mr. Twain cooked up some wicked-fine novels includin’ The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and i’s sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I heard dem lit’rary scholars been r’ferrin’ to that last one as “The Great American Novel,” or somethin’ like that. ‘Nyway, Mr. Twain was born in a place called Missouri, and that ’fected th’way he talked. He was real smart, though, ‘specially with language ‘n’ words, so he could talk different, too. But he talked a lot like this in that book ‘bout Huck, and made history for writin’ that story in what those scholars be callin’ “American-Southern vernacular.” It was also real contr’versial, and remained that way ‘n the years after publishin’ it, ‘cause it said what people nowadays callin’ th’“n-word.” I would spell it out here ’n this post but I lack th’balls Mr. Twain had.

But well b’fore writin’ ‘bout Tom ‘n’ Huck, this man got ‘is big break with a comedic tall tale titled, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” It was published in a New York weekly edition of The Saturday Press on th’eighteenth day o’ November in th’year one-thousand, eight-hundred ‘n’ sixty-five. Mr. Twain was a scientist and a entrepreneur ‘s well. He was good friends with this man called Nikola Tesla, or somethin’ like that, and they was always hangin’ out in his lab. Mr. Twain patented three inventions. So pretty soon, Mr. Tesla’s arch-nem’sis, Mr. Tom Edison, was shootin’ movies o’ Mr. Twain. It was all v’ry excitin’.

As you may’ve guessed, he was makin’ quite a lot o’ monies from ‘is creations, but sadly Mr. Twain also lost a bunch o’ those monies from investin’ in otha creations, like ‘is typesettin’ machine and publishin’ house. All in all, I reckon it’s perfectly safe t’say Mr. Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was one ‘o th’most legendary writers ‘n’ pe’haps, poss’bly people o’ all time, ‘n’ ’is yestelated deathday d’mands some proper r’spect.

I reckon that’s it.

Did you enjoy reading this week's TBT? You'll love seeing the accompanying blog piece with gorgeous graphics over on blog.theprose.com later today. 

Until next Thursday, Prosers. 

Prose.