Review: `Particularly pithy paragraphs'
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 03 4, 2014
The public owes a round of standing applause to Lowell Smith for publishing this collection of 20 stories by Mark Twain (aka Samuel Longhorne Clemens), one the brightest stars of American literature, homespun philosophy and king of humor. He is still quoted today because his observations of the human comedy remain as astute now as they were during his lifetime - his obituary at the time of his death mentioned `He has been quoted in common conversation oftener, perhaps, than any of his fellow-countrymen, including Benjamin Franklin and Lincoln. He has been honored by misquotation, too, and the humorous sayings of the ancients have been attributed to him, though he never borrowed. His wit was his own, and so was his extravagance, and his powers of observation never failed him.'That his wild tales about common and not so common people and events could still produce the wallop today as they did when he traveled around as a guest speaker speaks loudly for the resurrection of these twenty stories Smith has curated. Since the book is labeled as Volume 1 we can only hope public response will warrant a continuation of this venture. The stories in this too short volume (less than 100 pages) are 1. Aurelia's Unfortunate Young Man 2. The Personal Habits of the Siamese Twins 3. Frontier Justice 4. The Sight of A Woman 5. Science vs Luck 6. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County 7. The Arrival of the Mesmerizer 8. Church Smells 9. Early Days in Eden 10. Corn-Pone Opinions 11. On the Decay in the Art of Lying 12. The Collywobbles of English Mary 13. How to Cure a Cold 14. The Private Habits of Horace Greeley 15. The Nobel Red Man 16. Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses 17. The War Prayer 18. The Last Words of Great Men 19. Amended Obituaries  and 20. Threescore Years and Ten.In the spicy introduction Lowell Smith writes as pithy as Twain: `a contemporary critic remarked of Twain's performances, " his method as a lecturer was distinctly unique and novel. His slow, deliberate drawl, the anxious and perturbed expression of his visage, the apparently painful effort with which he framed his sentences...all this was original; it was Mark Twain." And it would not be fair to pass by the opportunity to sample a bit of Twain's writing as in the following - The Arrival of the Mesmerizer: `An exciting event in our village was the arrival of the mesmerizer. I think the year was 1850 when one named Simmons was there. He made public announcement of his show and promised wonders. It cost twenty-five cents to get in; children and Negroes half price. The village had heard of mesmerism in a general way but had not seen it yet. Not many people went the first night but next day they had so many wonders to tell that for a couple of weeks the mesmerizer was making money. I was fourteen or fifteen years old, the age at which a boy is willing to endure all things, suffer all things short of death by fire, if thereby he may be conspicious and show off before the public and so, when I saw the "subjects" perform foolishly on the platform and make the people laugh and shout and admire, I had a burning desire to be a subject myself.'Just a taste, a morsel, not nearly as funny as `Church Smells' or `The Personal Habits of Siamese Twins', but likely enough to make everyone jump back on board with Mark Twain. Grady Harp, March 14