TopicsOverview

All pages with additional information on people, places, and topics are collected here. There are additional Overview Pages collectiong entries on people and places respectively. Entries are sorted alphabetically.

There are 60 entries in this collection.

Agricultural Paper

Mark Twain's sketch “How I Edited an Agricultural Paper Once" originally appeared in the "Memoranda" section of The Galaxy (10:1, 133-135). It was later republished repeatedly, for example in the collection Mark Twain's ...continue reading

Almira Russel Hancock

Almira Russell Hancock's book Reminiscences of Winfield Scott Hancock (1887) was published by Mark Twain’s publishing firm, Webster & Company (see ...continue reading

Anecdotes

There were many anecdotes about Mark Twain - some inspired by his own writing or interviews he gave, some entirely made up or resulting out of misunderstandings in the press. Some of these stories where republished frequently and while some remained exactly the same over the course of repeated ...continue reading

Anna Kirchstein

Anna Kirchstein was a writer, poet, and translator from Germany who later moved to the US. On the occasion of Kirchstein's 70th birthday in 1918, a newspaper article praises the poet for her work as a translator:

Mit formvollendeten Uebertragungen aus dem Englischen hat Frau ...continue reading

Anti-Imperialist League

The Anti-Imperialist League was formed in 1898 in response to the increasingly expansionist foreign policies of the United States. Its membership was diverse, including Republicans, Democrats, economists, and socialists - all united in the feeling that imperialism was the antithesis to American ...continue reading

Association of American Physicians

Towards the End of the 20th century, there was an increasing number of American doctors staying in Germany to further their study of medicine and some of them founded the Association of American Physicians (see ...continue reading

August Siemering

August Siemering (1830–1883) was a writer, editor, judge, political leader, and publisher of the San Antonio Freie Presse für Texas. Born and educated in Germany, Siemering emigrated to the USA in 1851 where, together with other supporters of the failed revolution of 1848, he pursued his ...continue reading

Awful German Language

"The Awful German Language" was originally published as "Appendix D" of A Tramp Abroad in 1880 (601-619). The text was widely commented on (favourably as well as critically) in the German-language press and many newspapers ...continue reading

Berlin

During their extensive stay in Europe, Mark Twain, his wife, and their daughters Clara and Jean took up residence in Berlin two times. Once from October 1891 to February 1892, and once from June 1893 to August 1893. ...continue reading

Bermuda

Clemens visited Bermuda several times throughout his life and twice in 1908. The trip that fits the time frame of the article is his stay at the Princess Hotel from 27 Jan.-3 March. He was accompanied by Ralph W. Ashcroft, who had formerly worked as treasurer of the American Plasmon ...continue reading

Chapters Autobiography

Mark Twain's "Chapters from My Autobiography" was originally a series of 25 articles in the North American Review which ran initially from September 1906 to December 1907. The first installment was published on 7 Sep. 1906 ...continue reading

Charles Brookheim

Charles. L. Brookheim was a New York lawyer who worked on bankruptcy cases, usually as official receiver/trustee. He was responsible for assessing the bankrupt company’s assets and income and for redistributing funds to the creditors. Articles which mention Brookheim are, for example, ...continue reading

Charles Jervis Langdon

Charles Langdon was born on 13 August 1849. He was Olivia Langdon's younger brother and Samuel Clemens' brother-in-law. Samuel Clemens and Charles Langdon met during the Quaker City Excursion in 1867 when Langdon was eighteen years old and quickly came to admire ...continue reading

Clara Langdon Clemens

Clara Clemens was born on 8 June 1874 on Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y., and the second daughter of Samuel L. Clemens and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens. Compared to her sisters, Susy and Jean, Clara was more open to travelling and ...continue reading

Concerning Jews

"Concerning the Jews" was first published in Harper's Magazine (99:592, 527–535). The text was not as widely discussed in the press as some other of Mark Twain's works, but there was commentary on it which engaged with the ...continue reading

Diplomatic Pay

"Diplomatic Pay and Clothes", a critical discussion of US diplomats' financial situation in Europe, was first published in The Forum (March 1899, 24-32).

There are currently no Article Pages ...continue reading

Edward Warren Ordway

Edward Warren Ordway was a lawyer and political activist who served as secretary for the Anti-Imperialist League of New York from 1899 until 1904. He was also a part of the Filipino Progress Association, which he formed in 1905. He was concerned about American political involvement in the ...continue reading

Elmira

Elmira, N.Y., was the home of Olivia Langdon Clemens' family and the Langdon family home was the place where Olivia and Samuel Clemens got married in 1870. During the summers, the Clemens family frequently visited Quarry Farm - just outside of Elmira - where Olivia Clemens' sister, Susan ...continue reading

Encounter Interviewer

The sketch "An Encounter with an Interviewer" was first published in the collection Punch, Brothers, Punch! And Other Sketches (1878).

There are currently no Article Pages linked to this ...continue reading

Ernst Otto Hopp

Ernst Otto Hopp (1841-1910) was a German-born educator, journalist, editor, translator, and author with a keen interest in the United States. He was born and raised in Germany and received his education there before making his way to the United States in the winter of 1866. Hopp spent about a ...continue reading

First Lie

"My First Lie, and How I Got Out of It" was first published in New York World, 10 Dec. 1899. It was later collected in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, and Other Stories and Essays (1900).

T ...continue reading

Friedrich Maehliss

Friedrich Mähliss (alternative spelling: Mähliß) was a German language teacher and writer who - in 1892 - published a 23-page brochure entitled Die Schrecken der deutschen Sprache [The Horrors of the German Language]. In his introduction to the text, Mähliss explicitly referred to the ...continue reading

Funeral

After his death on 21 April 1910, Samuel Clemens’ body was transported by railway from his home in Redding, Ct., to New York City. On 23 April, a funeral procession and a memorial service at Brick Church took place; the service was conducted by Henry Van Dyke and Joseph Hopkins Twichell (see ...continue reading

German Chicago

In 1891, Clemens agreed with the New York Sun to write six travel letters during his stay in Europe (Rasmussen et al. 2:813). His report on Berlin, the last in the series, was published in the New York ...continue reading

Gertraut Chales de Beaulieu

Gertraut Chales de Beaulieu (1847-1902) worked as a translator and correspondent for various national and international newspapers and used her travels through Southern Europe as material for numerous travel sketches and books. She also published several humorous texts that established her ...continue reading

Grandfather's Ram

The story of Jim Blaine attempting to tell a story while repeatedly getting off track was originally included as an episode of Roughing It (ch. 53, 383-390). Mark Twain repeatedly presented the material during his lectures.

<di ...continue reading

Hans Blum

Hans Blum was born on 8th June 1841 in Leipzig. He worked as a lawyer, journalist and writer, and wrote for (among others) the literary magazines Daheim and Grenzboten. He died on 1st Feb. 1910.

Preliminary Sources:

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Heidelberg

Samuel Clemens arrived in Heidelberg on April 22, 1878. It was the first extended stay on his trip through Europe during the years 1878-1879. He was accompanied by his wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, his two daughters Susy (6 years old) and Clara ...continue reading

Henry Van Dyke

Henry Van Dyke was born on 10 November 1852 in Germantown, Pa.. After graduating from Princeton Theological Seminary, he spent a few years in Europe, studying and travelling (see "Henry Van Dyke" 20). In 1883 he was called as ...continue reading

Hermann Theodor Schmid

Schmid’s novel Der Habermeister was reprinted in serialized form in the German American newspaper Der Westbote (Columbus, Ohio), beginning on January 6, 1870. An English translation of Der Habermeister was ...continue reading

Introducing General Hawley

Mark Twain gave a speech introducing Genral Hawley at the Republican Meeting in Elmira, New York, on 16th October, 1879 (Fatout, Mark Twain Speaking, 128). Different versions of the speech circulated in various ...continue reading

Jane Lampton Clemens

Jane Lampton (Jean) Clemens was Samuel Clemens and Olivia Langdon Clemens’ third and youngest daughter. She was born on 26 July 1880 on Quarry Farm in Elmira, N.Y., and named after her paternal grandmother. Throughout her life, Jean Clemens’ health was a matter of concern for ...continue reading

Joseph Twichell

Joseph Hopkins Twichell was born on 27 May 1838 in Southington, CT. He was a chaplain in the New York State Infantry during the Civil War, an experience that shaped his views and his work as a pastor later in life (see ...continue reading

Letter Postal Service

Mark Twain’s letter was dated July 22, 1876. A transcribed and annotated version is available from the Mark Twain Project (UCCL01350). The text was reprinted by several American daily newspapers under different headings. It can be found in ...continue reading

Letter Treasury

On October 3rd 1902, Mark Twain sent a letter to the secretary of the treasury in which Twain requested to be send winter fuel - in the form of treasury bonds, bank notes, etc.. The letter soon started circulating in the press and was subsequently translated in the German-language papers as well. ...continue reading

Lucy Webb Hayes

Lucy Hayes was born Lucy Ware Webb on 28th August 1831 in Chillicothe, OH. She married Rutherford B. Hayes in December 1852 who was elected US president in 1877. Lucy Hayes was the first woman to be addressed as the "First Lady" in formal settings. She died on 25th June 1889 in Fremont, OH (see ...continue reading

Making Fortune

This short sketch by Mark Twain appeared in several American daily newspapers beginning in February 1873. Most newspapers printed the sketch under the heading "Making a Fortune"; however, the Delaware State Journal used "How to Make Fortune" as the title ...continue reading

McWilliams Lightning

“Mrs. McWilliams and the Lightning” (1880) is the second of three McWilliams family stories which appeared between 1875 and 1882. It first appeared in The Atlantic Monthly in September 1880 (46:275, 380-384) and was ...continue reading

Million Bank Note

Mark Twain’s short story “The £1,000,000 Bank-Note,” was first published in 1893 in the Century Magazine (45:3, 338-346). In the same year, the text appeared in the collection The £1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other New ...continue reading

North American Review

The North American Review - founded in 1815 - is the oldest literary magazine in the USA and is still published today (see "History, North American Review"). In addition to "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" this periodical also published ...continue reading

Notice Burglars

A report on the burglary was published in the New York Times ("Burglars Invade Mark Twain Villa," 19 Sept. 1908) and Barbara Schmidt provides a transcript of the article at Twainquotes. A digital version of Mark Twain's original note is available ...continue reading

Olivia Langdon Clemens

Olivia (Livy) Louise Langdon was born on 27 Nov. 1845 in Elmira, N.Y., as the second child of Jervis and Olivia Lewis Langdon. Her father was a wealthy man who owned a flourishing coal business (see Rasmussen et al. 2:641) ...continue reading

Olivia Susan Clemens

Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens was born 19 March 1872 in Elmira, N.Y., and Samuel and Olivia Langdon Clemens’ oldest daughter. She was called Susy by her family. As a child, she began writing a biography of her father who later included some of the material (and his own commentary on it) in ...continue reading

Ossip Gabrilowitsch

Ossip Gabrilowitsch was born on 7 Feb. 1878 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Aged ten and considered a child prodigy, he was admitted to the St. Petersburg Conservatory to study piano and later took lessons with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. When the Clemens family stayed in Vienna, ...continue reading

Otto Lecher

Otto Lecher was an Austrian politician and member of the Austrian "Abgeordnetenhaus".

During Mark Twain's visit to the Austrian Parliament on 28th October 1897, Lecher infamously held a speech which went on for twelve hours.

There ...continue reading

Pen Name

Samuel L. Clemens started using the pen name "Mark Twain" in 1863 (see Rasmussen et al. 2:774). Its first known appearance was in a letter published in the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise on 3 Feb. 1863 (see ...continue reading

Plasmon

The main product sold by the Plasmon Company was also called “Plasmon”, a skim milk powder that was supposed to restore general health and which Samuel L. Clemens encountered first during his stay in Vienna in 1898/1899 (see Wilson and Rees in ...continue reading

Quaker City Excursion

The Quaker City Excursion was an American pleasure cruise and educational excursion to the Mediterranean and back that took place in 1867. “Quaker City” was the name of the steamship used for the cruise. Clemens participated in the excursion as a newspaper correspondent for the San ...continue reading

Redding

In 1906, Samuel Clemens bought land in the vicinity of the town Redding in Connecticut. The purchase was made without Clemens having seen the property beforehand as he was eager to strike an apparent bargain (see ...continue reading

Running for Governor

The sketch “Running for Governor” was originally published in the Buffalo Express in November 1870 and in The Galaxy in December 1870 (10:6, 878-880). The Library of America’s Story of the Week article on the ...continue reading

Salutation Speech

Mark Twain's text "Salutation-Speech from the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth", a sarcastic and critical welcome to the new millenium, was origianlly published in the New York Herald, 30 Dec. 1900, 7. The text can be found in Mark Twain on Potholes and Politics ...continue reading

Samuel Eastman

Samuel Eastman was pastor at Elmira's Park Church. His wife, Annis Ford Eastman, shared his position and was one of the first female ministers in the US (see Irmscher 12). Eastman was born 17th May 1846 and died 7th Feb. ...continue reading

Savage Club Speech

On 15th November 1895, Mark Twain held a speech at the Savage Club in Christchurch, New Zealand. A version of the speech can be found in Mark Twain Speaking (Fatout, 302-304).

There are currently ...continue reading

Sitting in Darkness

Mark Twain’s “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” is a polemical article which appeared in the North American Review in 1901 (172:531, 161-176). The first half of it is made up of satirical comments on the recent dealings ...continue reading

Switzerland Cradle of Liberty

A series of six letters Mark Twain wrote for American newspapers (Paine 2:923) and which appeared as “Switzerland, The Cradle of Liberty” in the Twain collection What Is Man? And Other Essays ...continue reading

The Babies

Mark Twain's speech on "The Babies" was delivered on 13th November 1879 during a Reunion Banquet of the Army of the Tennessee in Chicago. For the full text see Mark Twain Speaking (Fatout 131-134).

<e ...continue reading

Vienna

Mark Twain, accompanied by his wife Olivia and his daughters Jean and Clara, stayed in Vienna from 27th September 1897 until 26th May 1899, where they stayed at the Hotel Metropol and later at the Hotel Krantz. Carl ...continue reading

William Howard Taft

William Howard Taft was the 27th president of the United States, serving office from 1909 to 1913. He was born 15th Sep. 1857 and died 8th March 1930. ...continue reading

William Walter Phelps

William Walter Phelps was an American politician who was appointed by President Harrison to represent the United States in Germany at the International Congress on the Samoan Question in 1889. He was later appointed envoy of the United States in Berlin and held this position from 1889-1893 (see ...continue reading

Woman

Mark Twain delivered this speech on 22nd December 1882 at the annual dinner of the New England Society of New York. The text of the speech can be found in Mark Twain Speaking (Fatout, 173-175). Coverage of this event in ...continue reading