Mark Twain Travels Again

For the second Reality Tour – Historic Trains of California – I adopted Mark Twain as my literary guide.

Before leaving, I reread The Innocents Abroad to help shape up my travel writing. Never one to take myself too seriously I thought it the perfect match. Especially because I knew we would be visiting San Francisco, a city tied to the transformation of Samuel Clemens into Mark Twain.

However, the great writer’s connections to this tour ran much deeper than that. No matter where we stopped, our guides, a sign post or some plaque pointed towards Twain’s influence. From working for the Sacramento Union to chasing his fortune during the gold rush, he trod over the same ground we covered. Steam engines, newspapers, Lake Tahoe, Seal Rock, the Sierra Nevada’s… it was all there.

Twain’s unending appeal was reconfirmed this week. His legendary autobiography has finally been released. And now, over 100 years after leaving this planet, he has a book at the top of Amazon.com’s bestseller list. Check out this article from the Modesto Bee, dateline Angels Camp (the old stomping grounds of our Reality Tour driver, Drew).

The author believed his unedited thoughts might damage his rep and thus left instructions to delay the work’s publication for a century.

To me, Mark Twain embodies the possibilities of the United States. Chasing the American Dream, he went west. In almost Roarkian fashion he’s a self-made figure, relying on his talents and wit to survive in a harsh world. And to that world he brought humor, respect for free-speech, and the masterful Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Not bad.