“Substitute
'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it
and the writing will be just as it should be.”
Mark Twain
Curious facts about:
He was born and
died when Comet Halley was visible in the sky. Twain once noted: I came in with Halley’s Comet
in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it.
It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t.” He got his wish.
He died on April 21, 1910, just two days after Halley’s comet had reached its
point closest to the Sun. It was the second death he predicted, the first being
his brother’s.
Samuel Clemens tried out several
pseudonyms, including Rambler, W Epaminondas Adrastus Blab, and Josh, before
settling on Mark Twain (the phrase used by Mississippi River steamboat crews when
measuring water depth).
Twain briefly
served with a Confederate militia. In June 1861, shortly after the Civil War
began, 25-year-old Clemens joined the Marion Rangers, a pro-Confederate
militia. Although his family had owned a slave when he was a boy, Clemens
didn’t have strong ideological convictions about the war and probably enlisted
with the militia primarily out of loyalty to his Southern roots.
Bermuda was always a favorite of
Twain’s getaways.