Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910) was of course the great American writer and humourist better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, and lauded as the father of American literature. His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) as well as A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) and Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894). The latter novel I had on my bookshelf as a boy although I must admit I don’t remember reading it; Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, on the other hand, was a staple of my generation that everyone read.
Clemens used a litany of pen names: before “Mark Twain” he had written as “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass”, “Sieur Louis de Conte”, “John Snook” and even just “Josh”. There are a number of competing theories about the pseudonym he conclusively decided to adopt, my favourite being the riverboat call from his days working on steamboats: “by the mark, twain” (referring to sounding a depth of two fathoms, which was just safe enough for a steamboat travelling down the Mississippi). However, another theory talks about his keeping a regular tab open at his local saloon and calling the bartender to “mark twain” on the blackboard, and I get the impression that he enjoyed the speculation and never conclusively confirmed one or the other.
He was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. In his early years he worked as a printer and typesetter, and then, as mentioned, a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, before heading west to join his brother Orion in Nevada to speculate unsuccessfully in various mining enterprises. Finally, he turned to journalism and writing which soon won him success and praise from his critics and peers, and led him to his true vocation.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is written throughout in vernacular English and told in the first person by Huckleberry “Huck” Finn. The book comes across as an authentic portrayal of boyhood and it is awash with colourful descriptions of people and places along the Mississippi River. Set in a Southern antebellum society marked by the prevalent practice of slavery and its associated societal norms, it often makes for uncomfortable reading, but at the same time it is a scathing satire against the entrenched attitudes of those days. The novel explores themes of race and identity long before that was a phrase, but also what it means to be free and civilised in the changing landscape of America.
