American Vandal: Mark Twain Abroad

288 Pages·2015·1.59 MB·English

by  Roy Morris Jr.

AMERICAN VANDAL

American Vandal
Mark Twain Abroad
ROY MORRIS, JR.
the belknap press of
harvard university press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
2015
Copyright © 2015 by Roy Morris, Jr.
all rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First printing
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
Morris, Roy, Jr.
American vandal : Mark Twain abroad / Roy Morris, Jr.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-674-41669-7 (alk. paper)
1. Twain, Mark, 1835-1910—Travel. I. Title.
PS1334.M67 2015
818'.409—dc23 2014033055
for steve ellis
Thanks for the ride

CONTENTS
A Note on Names viii
INTRODUCTION 1
1. INNOCENTS ABROAD 9
2. TRAMPS ABROAD 63
3. INNOCENTS ADRIFT 105
4. STOWAWAYS WILL BE PROSECUTED 143
5. THIS EVERLASTING EXILE 189
AFTERWORD 235
Abbreviations 243
Notes 245
Index 263
A NOTE ON NAMES
The man who signed himself “Mark Twain” on the covers of
his books was born, of course, Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
Everyone knows that. But since a good deal of his traveling
was done under the aegis and persona of his trade name, and
since this is a book about those travels, it seems a needless
aff ectation to split the single person into two parts. I have
chosen simply to call him “Mark Twain,” as indeed he chose
to call himself.
Introduction
For a man who enjoyed being called—not without
reason— the American, Mark Twain spent a surprising
amount of time living and traveling abroad. Beginning with
his fi ve- month- long visit to Hawaii (not yet a U.S. territory)
in 1866, Twain passed the better part of a dozen years outside
the boundaries of the continental United States. He made
twenty- nine separate transatlantic crossings; circumnavigated
the globe via the Atlantic, Pacifi c, and Indian Oceans; cruised
the Mediterranean, Ca rib be an, Black, Caspian, and Aegean
Seas; crisscrossed India from Bombay to Darjeeling; hiked the
Alps and the Tyrolean Black Forest; fl oated down the Neckar
and Rhone Rivers on a raft; and lived and worked for exten-
sive periods of time in London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna, as
well as various smaller Eur op ea n cities and resorts. It was all
part of his lifelong need to see and experience new things, a
need that in itself was deeply and characteristically American.
“I am wild with impatience to move—move— Move!” Twain
wrote to his mother in 1867. “My mind gives me peace only
in excitement and restless moving from place to place. I wish
I never had to stop anywhere.” He seldom did.1
1