[HN Gopher] Mark Twain's two-week stint as a Confederate soldier
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Mark Twain's two-week stint as a Confederate soldier
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 46 points
Date : 2023-04-16 19:45 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.historynet.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.historynet.com)
| perczel wrote:
| The story of Grant's aasociation with Twain and the latter's
| influence on getting Grant's war time memoires written is
| discussed in great and entertaining detail in Ron Chernows's
| biography of Grant, which is one of the most entertaining
| biographies I have ever read:
| https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B06W2J89PV/ref=tmm_kin_swatch...
| eschulz wrote:
| I too found that biography to be very entertaining and
| informative. It was interesting how Grant spent the last
| several months of his life writing for most hours of almost
| every day. He dove into it, and apparently gave Twain's
| publishing firm a pretty good product that they could easily
| work with.
|
| Grant was a very skilled man throughout his life in regard to
| arithmetic, equestrianism, and military arts among other
| things. However, he truly found a new skill and passion in
| writing while literally on his deathbed.
| sizzzzlerz wrote:
| What a loss it would have been had Clemens been killed in his
| short time in the army. There are few figures more important to
| American literature than he.
| ec109685 wrote:
| Similarly, if his brief association with the Confederacy would
| have left an indelible mark on his reputation.
|
| Past sins become permanent tattoos far too easily these days.
| EGreg wrote:
| Great to see Mark Twain fail to engage in actual war. Leo
| Tolstoy, Thoreau and other men, too, were even less fond of it.
|
| As a left-libertarian, I would like to recommend two great
| speeches regarding war:
|
| Eugene Debbs: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/eugene-v-
| debs-speech...
|
| Smedley Butler: http://kether.com/words/butler-smedley--war-is-a-
| racket-1.pd...
| eatonphil wrote:
| As the post mentions, it was Twain('s company) who ultimately
| ended up publishing Grant's memoirs at the end of his life. The
| post doesn't mention but it wasn't just a random relationship,
| they were good friends. (Sidenote: Ron Chernow's Grant is a great
| read. Grant is an underrated president.)
|
| It's always interesting to read about historic figures
| intersecting.
| no_wizard wrote:
| I'm curious how Grant's presidency is considered underrated. I
| admire him for taking unpopular stances around voting rights
| and civil rights (and particularly, he genuinely seemed to care
| about Native Americans in some real capacity) but his
| presidency was completely mired by corruption around him, so
| much so that there's entire wikipedia page devoted to it[0].
|
| While I'm not going to claim nearly any president was without
| scandal (really almost none, sans maybe - _maybe_ - George
| Washington), evidence suggests he was a really ineffective
| president all things considered, particularly in controlling
| his cabinet members and managing economic affairs
|
| [0]:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_administration_scandals
| eschulz wrote:
| I think it's underrated since people generally rate it so
| poorly to begin with. His time in office is considered to be
| almost a waste since there was so much corruption by those
| who gained his trust and got into positions of power. Really,
| Sect of State Hamilton Fish was just about Grant's only good
| judge of character when building his administration.
|
| Even though surrounded by corruption, he achieved important
| success by using his platform as by far America's most famous
| living person to push the country forward significantly on
| unpopular civil rights issues. To this end he developed as a
| public speaker and self-publicist while in office (as a poor
| judge of character he couldn't really rely on those around
| him).
| labrador wrote:
| His account of his escape West after accepting a job with his
| brother can be read in Roughing It
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughing_It
| sizzzzlerz wrote:
| Roughing It is my favorite Twain work but it needs to be read
| cautiously with respect to its veracity. Twain had a tendency
| to both embellish and out-right make up the events detailed in
| the book. That said, its a very enjoyable book and it gives a
| good look at the style of the author-to-be.
| labrador wrote:
| I'm glad Wikipedia has it marked semi-autobiographical
| because when I first read it awhile ago I didn't realize
| that. I caught on after I read his quote "Never let the truth
| get in the way of a good story" some time around the time I
| read that book. I feel "Life On The Mississippi" is probably
| his most true book for two reasons: 1) Becoming a steam boat
| pilot was a deeply formative experience 2) He lost his
| younger brother Henry Clemens to a steam boat boiler
| explosion and he wanted to honor his memory.
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(page generated 2023-04-16 23:00 UTC)