I’ve heard it said Twain is the most-oft quoted person in the world next to Shakespeare, but I find that hard to believe. You mean the wisdom and philosophy of Twain beats that of Jesus? Buddha? Confucius?
Even when I’m not researching Twain, I can’t seem to shake him, and you know, sometimes I just want a break. Sometimes, I don’t want to take work home with me. Sometimes the last name I want to hear--or read--is Twain. And, then, I receive an email or open a magazine or crack open the work of a contemporary author and there it is--yet another Mark Twain quote. It's like I'm getting a glimpse of the old geezer’s backside—white hair flying, laughter trailing and a hint of that stinky cigar--as he wobbles around a corner. And I want to yell, “Just leave me alone, will you?”
Then, I remember he was the first American to give American letters its own voice. Until Twain arrived on the scene with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1875—which has never once gone out of print since—America played second fiddle to those blokes across the pond. James Fennimore Cooper. Herman Melville. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Just Englishmen in disguise. Twain himself was less than impressed with one—James Fennimore Cooper—penning these words, “Cooper's art has some defects. In one place in Deerslayer, and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offenses against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.”
On one hand, it seems Mark Twain is a household name, and, yet, I’m learning, not as well-known as I might think.
When I spoke with the PR agent for the Oahu Visitors Bureau a couple months ago and explained the purpose for my research trip to her island, she was ecstatic and wanted to house me in an historical Honolulu hotel that borders lands once owned by the family of Princess Kaiulani, good friends, she said, with Twain who entertained the young, 13-year-old princess with tall tales.
Now, I’m all for trying to re-enact Twain’s journey—walking in his footsteps, laying my head close to where he may have slept, conjuring up the mana of his Hawaii friends—however, I was fully aware Twain did not talk story with Princess Kaiulani, did not visit her palatial estate, and was, most certainly, not even an acquaintance of her, because Mark Twain visited Hawaii in 1866, and Princess Kaiulani was born in 1875. It doesn’t take much research to get to the bottom of that one. Another American writer of distinction—Robert Louis Stevenson—did visit Kaiulani, did entertain her with stories and did stay at a nearby residence. Some 22 years after Twain’s visit.
By the time the PR representative caught her mistake, I was already granted and graciously accepted—as I’m sure Twain would have—a two-night stay at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in Waikiki.
