Friday, September 30, 2005
Mark Twain-Kim
“My First Literary Venture” by Mark Twain was a very intriguing essay. Twain starts his essay by explaining how he wanted to become a writer for a newspaper. To Twain’s surprise he was able to work a week for his uncle. His uncle owned the Weekly Hannibal Journal and had appointed Twain as the editor while he was absent. Eager to write something in the paper, Twain stumbles on a piece of information about the head editor of the Journal’s rival, Higgins. The information turned out to be an attempted suicide by Higgins who planned to drown himself into the Bear Creek. As it turned out, Higgins got cold feet and was found walking back to land. Twain saw this as a prime opportunity to write something that would be interesting. He decided to write a detailed account of the incident and even added a picture. Also, he threw in a few laughs about numerous people in the town. As a result, the Hannibal Journal became a hit with the citizens of the town and many people signed up to receive the weekly paper. When Twain’s uncle returned within a week, he was shocked that Twain would do such a thing but thrilled to see that the paper was selling so many copies.
The success of Twain’s uncle’s newspaper would never have occurred if Twain did not possess unique personality qualities that were incorporated into his writing. In the opening of the essay, Twain brags about his intelligence at a young age. He seems very invincible with his own writing and was willing to take on the challenge of being the editor for the week. Twain obviously exhibits humor throughout the essay because of the funny details that he used in the newspaper article.
If I were to meet Twain, I would love to ask him where he acquired his writing inspiration. It could very well be his uncle, because he is in the writing business, or from a particular author. I would ask him what kind of genres he prefers to read; I would ask him why he would prefer to read those specific genres. All-in-all, I would love to have a conversation with one of the most influential writers in American history.