Talk:Mark Twain

message: With permission from International Publishers, I've scanned Mark Twain: Social Critic and put it online for anyone to read. I've also added it to the "Further reading" section since I figure it is a commonly-cited book (even the article cites it a few times.) --Ismail (talk) 11:51, 19 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mark Twain: Social Critic 

message: There are two birth years in this article.  I doubt he was born in 1945. 2001:569:FB25:F900:596E:D213:7B69:DDFA (talk) 01:48, 10 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 10 May 2018 

message: Please remove :Category:Critics of Christian Science. There is no support for it in the article text. Alternatively, retain and bolster it with material from Christian Science (book), which includes 4 usable WP:RS. 2600:8800:1880:91E:5604:A6FF:FE38:4B26 (talk) 04:33, 12 May 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Per WP:CATV: Categorization of articles must be verifiable. It should be clear from verifiable information in the article why it was placed in each of its categories. Use the  template if you find an article in a category that is not shown by sources to be appropriate or if the article gives no clear indication for inclusion in a category. Surely it would not hurt to add 'verifiable information in the article' to support this category? 2600:8800:1880:91E:5604:A6FF:FE38:4B26 (talk) 18:10, 12 May 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that an article on a book by Mark Twain, entitled Christian Science, is quite likely to be on that topic. Especially since the article on Christian Science itself mentions this book as being critical. Collect (talk) 19:46, 12 May 2018 (UTC)

text: Not done: Content of which removal is requested passes verification Eggishorn (talk) (contrib) 02:01, 13 May 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request, 12 May 2018 

message: A source for the claim: " The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the word "nigger",[citation needed]" can be found at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/banned-adventures-huckleberry-finn/ as well as https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/12058648/American-school-bans-Huckleberry-Finn-from-lessons-because-of-use-of-N-word.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rincewind Lanbatal (talk • contribs) 05:45, 4 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Citation found for second paragraph of Writing:Overview 

message: The story that he took the name from Captain Isaiah Sellers death in 1869 would seem to contradict the fact that "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published under that pen name a few years prior to 1869.  Perhaps this is just a problem with the year of Sellers' death?
Also,the May/13/1867 Philadelphia Evening Telegraph states that Twain's real name is C.H. Webb: "... the genial 'Mark Twain,' of California, whose proper and real name is C.H. Webb."  — Preceding unsigned comment added by DiffuseGoose (talk • contribs) 12:29, 10 June 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origin of Pen Name 

message: Add this reference under Further Reading
Nathan G. Alexander, "Unclasping the Eagle's Talons: Mark Twain, American Freethought, and the Responses to Imperialism." The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 17, no. 3 (2018): 524-545. Nameno1staken (talk) 21:49, 29 July 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Done LittlePuppers (talk) 01:42, 4 August 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 29 July 2018 

message: There is an odd symbol I do not recognize, apparently the only thing to click in the footnote text.  However, it leads to the current best seller list of the Times, which seems not relevant to this article.  The text is discussing the popularity of Twain's autobiography, published in 1910.  Perhaps other readers are confused, as I am. Eleanorba (talk) 14:05, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed it. It was silly. EEng 14:36, 3 September 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Question about footnote 85 

message: 2601:150:100:DA70:1532:5DCE:2E04:6818 (talk) 00:40, 14 March 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: to request that a draft be created, please see WP:AFC DannyS712 (talk) 07:42, 14 March 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 14 March 2019 

message: Name was Clemons, not Twain. Article should be revised and other references standardized  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1702:4300:71F0:19BA:9475:E9BE:94D2 (talk) 00:51, 8 June 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: We don't necessarily use a person's legal name in titling articles. See WP:COMMONNAME. "Mark Twain" is how this person is usually referred to, not "Samuel Clemens". Dhtwiki (talk) 20:58, 8 June 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  name style 

message: For crying out loud.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.97.112.255 (talk) 18:31, 14 August 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: The text doesn't say that it is. It only says that the plot device in Connecticut Yankee was used in alternate histories. Clarityfiend (talk) 08:53, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Connecticut Yankee is NOT 'alternate history' 

message: Please change the first sentence of the article to the following:
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, lecturer, and racist.
This edit request adds information which is 100% verifiable by the text of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", which Clemens, a white man, wrote and used the N word countless times in. Antifa for justice (talk) 23:47, 8 December 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: . See presentism – Thjarkur (talk) 00:24, 9 December 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Concurring comment, In the spirit of assuming good faith, and in the spirit of not making the assumption that every good faith contributor is already knowledgeable of All Things that have Ever Happened (and for whom, thus, simply redirecting to presentism would do none good, if they weren't aware of the facts), I would like to make brief note here of the situation regarding that word as it was, verses how it is. In a nutshell, in those days "nigger" was not a hateful slur; it was slang, informal, &c, but back then the word itself did NOT carry an implication of malice. It is also the Latin word for "black" (the Latin spelling is niger, but the pronunciation was like English nigger). Even as recently as 1955 (according to one legendary black American musician for whom a popular beat is named after), "black" and "nigger" were, at that time, of roughly equal offensiveness (the one becoming more positive and the other dramatically more negative). And THAT is why you cannot judge a person from centuries past by the vocabulary that they use. It isn't only "Well everyone was racist back then, so oh well!" It is also that: wordsb that are "racist" now were not "racist" then (and vice versa!). And that is a critical facet of the "presentism" that is spoken of. Have a nice day :) 2600:1702:4960:1DE0:5010:5C21:EA43:B649 (talk) 20:08, 2 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 8 December 2019 

message: When people are "buried side by side", "side by side" is an adverb; no hyphens are needed or helpful. In "The enclosed cockpit had two side-by-side seats for instructor and student", "side-by-side" is an adjective, and needs hyphens. There are a couple of guys who are experts at this, and have a neat website, merriam-webster.com. No fancy explanation is necessary when editing an article to conform to spelling and punctuation that are laid out in a dictionary. Happy editing! Chris the speller yack 00:49, 10 March 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  "buried side by side" 

message: Proposed addition to "Marriage and children" subsection, to give a fuller picture of Twain's social circle:
Twain and Olivia were friends of landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church, whose art Twain admired, and were visitors at Olana, his home in Hudson, New York.
Varronis (talk) 19:28, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Doesn't seem especially notable. The fact that Church's article makes no mention of Twain indicates the friendship was nothing out of the ordinary. Clarityfiend (talk) 22:50, 1 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request, 1 April 2020 

message: In the "Pen Names" section, in the quotation derived from note 144, change "He died in 1869" to "He died in 1863" per the source cited. The link in note 144 shows the correct quotation from which this is taken. (The timing of Twain using the pen name from 1863 on would make no sense if Sellers had died in 1869.) Xanduh (talk) 21:53, 8 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 8 May 2020 

message: I find it interesting that Mr. Clemens actually wrote a book on this religion, on top of the fact that his wife and one of his daughters joined the church, and there is not a single mention of this anywhere in the Wikipedia bi0.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.37.31.103 (talk) 04:53, 1 February 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not aware of the fact. Of course, what is needed is reliable sources that tell of that. Can you supply some? Dhtwiki (talk) 21:07, 1 February 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: See our article Christian Science (book). I'm skeptical about his family's religious choices as stated above. But there are lots of references in the article on the book. Smallbones(smalltalk) 19:02, 17 November 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't see much at the linked article that tells of Twain's feelings, other than his having written ironically on it. That article doesn't say anything about Twain's family's involvement, which would give his attitudes more weight that just a humorist commenting on a national phenomenon or institution. Dhtwiki (talk) 10:01, 18 November 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Christian Science 

message: The censorship section seems unnecessary since it was already mentioned that some of his work was censored because of the language.Gmora1011 (talk) 18:13, 22 April 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Censorship 

message: Why is the page title in italics? AllegedlyHuman (talk) 17:06, 12 June 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Maybe because it is a pen name? MOS:PSEUDONYM and WP:ITALICTITLE do not seem to imply that there is a need for an italic article title — GhostInTheMachine talk to me 20:54, 12 June 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Italics? 

message: 65.51.244.114 (talk) 13:24, 13 September 2021 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. — LauritzT (talk) 13:51, 13 September 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 13 September 2021 

message: This section says Mr. Twain visited Toronto twice, 1864 and 1865. The King Edward Hotel page includes Mr. Twain among a list of celebrity guests, but the King Edward didn't open until 1903. Is there any way to resolve this apparent contradiction? The use of the word ""twice" suggests only twice. Perhaps change visited Toronto twice, 1864 and 1865 to visited Toronto in 1864 and 1865.
Greenfielddude (talk) 15:44, 29 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mark Twain Canadian Visits 

message: 62.88.128.134 (talk) 06:39, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. The text of this edit request seems to be in swedish. Please ote that in the english Wikipedia, all article space contributions should be in english, and talking to editors in a foreign language might make communication difficult. Perhaps try contributing to the swedish Wikipedia instead? Victor Schmidt (talk) 07:53, 28 September 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 28 September 2022 

message: An editor has identified a potential problem with the redirect :Mark twain and has thus listed it for discussion. This discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2022 November 7#Mark twain until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion.  TartarTorte 18:53, 7 November 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Mark twain" listed at [[Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion|Redirects for discussion]] 

message: Samuel L. Clemens' father and grandfather lived on the Ohio River in what is now Lakin in Mason County, West Virginia.  West Virginia Historical Society has placed a historical marker beside Route 62 between Point Pleasant and Mason, West Virginia. PaulaLNapier (talk) 22:06, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Family geographical origins 

message: In the section on Twain's death, there is a claim that he died one day after Halley's Comet's closest approach to earth. While he did die one day after the Comet's perihelion in 1910, and possibly its closest approach in that year, Halley's Comet's closest approach to Earth was in 837, when it passed approximately 3 miles from the Earth. I worry that this language is ambiguous in the first section (less so when mentioned later in the article), and I suggest a change in the first section to "Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it" as well, dying the day after the comet's 1910 perihelion." Here is the Nasa.gov text on the Comet's closest approach: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/1p-halley/in-depth/#:~:text=The%20comet's%20closest%20approach%20to,of%20Venus%20at%20greatest%20brilliance. This is a very fun fact about Mark Twain! Erinshapland (talk) 14:31, 6 April 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: (kinda). The source listed in the article already helpfully lists the perigee - this appears to be about a month off from his date of death and so I have corrected the article to use this date rather than misrepresent perihelion as the closest approach to Earth. Tollens (talk) 20:40, 6 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 6 April 2023 

message: Apologies for not having a source for this, but an educator with the library support organization Ohio Library Council once told his audience (including this writer) that he came into the profession after failing as a school teacher, and that based on this experience he was mindful of a version by Mark Twain, which he quoted as "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again - and then give up: don't be a damn fool about it." 2603:6010:4E42:500:5D2D:8B07:BCAB:7290 (talk) 03:53, 6 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  [[William Edward Hickson|If at first you don't succeed]] 

message: his salary shouldn't be one hundred and fifty, it should be one hundred fifty no and Bubs008 (talk) 13:49, 24 October 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm sorry, it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Could you explain what you would like to be revised/added/removed? Professor Penguino (talk) 01:38, 1 November 2023 (UTC)

text: In the first place, that's in a direct quote, which you should never, ever change. In the second, either phrasing is acceptable. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:27, 13 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  numbers 

message: In the section, Early Life, the Wikipedia article on Mark Twain states, "His parents met when his father moved to Missouri. They were married in 1823." Although, they were married in 1823, Mark Twian's father, John Marshall Clemens and his mother Jane Lampton met in Kentucky where they both lived and were married in Kentucky on May 6, 1823. This edit is from "Mark Twain, A Biography: The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens" (The Official Biography of Mark Twain), written by Albert Bigelow Paine. ShyeTK (talk) 03:43, 13 November 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed based on the bio I can read. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:52, 13 November 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks, whoever I'm replying to! FYI: If you're interested, you can listen to Albert Bigelow Paine's biography of Twain, "Mark Twain, A Biography: The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens" (The Official Biography of Mark Twain) free of charge on Librivox. Librivox is an app you can download on your phone where there are thousands of books read aloud. That's how I happened to come across the discrepancy on Wikipedia's bio of Twain. Thanks again. ShyeTK (talk) 16:00, 14 November 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Where Mark Twain's parents met and married.  

message: @Clarityfiend Referring to the recent removal of the category pertaining to comedian. I wondered what your thoughts were on these sources.  
Elvisisalive95 (talk) 00:05, 18 January 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: I see David E. E. Sloane pushing the thesis that Twain was a "literary comedian". Both he and Judith Yaross Lee are professors and Twain authorities. Author Richard Zacks wrote Chasing the Last Laugh: Mark Twain’s Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour. But these are just three voices in the wilderness. Everybody labels him as a humorist; these are about all I can find who call him a comedian. Is that enough? I don't think so. YMMV. Clarityfiend (talk) 01:25, 18 January 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: @Clarityfiend I appreciate your input & knowledge on the matter. Makes sense to me, my library is the Mark Twain Library & the librarians always call him a comedian!  But by definition, humorist definitely describes Twain Elvisisalive95 (talk) 01:40, 18 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Comedian  

message: The grammar is a little wrong with the birthday of Mark Twain can it be okay if I change it so people can understand this article better? MochaCat12 (talk) 03:14, 20 March 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: Looks okay to me. What do you think is grammatically wrong? Clarityfiend (talk) 03:34, 20 March 2024 (UTC)

text: Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate.  v/r - Seawolf35 T--C 19:21, 21 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Semi-protected edit request on 20 March 2024