As the plane taking me home rose and banked to the west, it crossed the Mississippi River. Just a few days before, this striking landscape held little meaning. Now, looking down, I recognized the great span of bridges connecting the Illinois towns of Rock Island and Moline with Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa — known collectively…
Opposites Attract: Mark Twain and Joan of Arc
More than a century after his death, Mark Twain (1835-1910), the pen name for Samuel Langhorne Clemons, remains a figure of controversy. Some schools, for example, have dropped his American classic “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from required reading lists for its racial language. Twain’s religious skepticism, directed in particular toward Christianity, has also made his…
How Mark Twain Discovered His Wit and Style as a Reporter Working in America’s Rough and Tumble West
Twentieth-century American author William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature.” But few of his compatriots today know of his raucous literary upbringing in a silver-mining boomtown. Unaccomplished and undecided as to his future, he first took up writing as a career in Nevada, and there he adopted a pen name and attracted a…
Is the Rift Between the Public and the C-Suites Permanent?
Commentary HANNIBAL, Missouri—During a visit here in 1882, Mark Twain wrote to his wife Olivia of the rush of sentiments he experienced returning to the town of his childhood. “I have spent three delightful days in Hannibal, loitering around all day long, examining the old localities and talking with the grey-heads who were boys and…
Find Lucille Ball, Mark Twain, and Salad Dressing in Upstate New York
Leaving Chautauqua County, my husband, Vic, and I continued our Empire State Road Trip in upstate New York, this time headed toward Watkins Glen and the Thousand Islands. Our trip was organized by the Harbor Hotels, and when we left one for the other they each gave us a little cooler full of water, fruit,…
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