Sam Clemens

[Mark Stone]

Since I was young I've always been interested in Mark Twain, especially books he wrote describing his journeys. The most fascinating is a book (the title escapes me now --) he wrote describing his travels through the "old west" with his brother when he deserted from the Confederate army in the 1860s:[quote]War broke out. Trade on the river ceased, so I joined the confederacy; served for two weeks; deserted; and the confederacy fell.[/quote] Meeting Brigham Young, prospecting for gold, his commentary on the Mormon Church at that time, etc. There's a fascinating historical perspective. Anyone else like to read Mark Twain?

--Mark:cool:

ps -- You know I was named after Mark Twain. He was named in the 1800s, and I in 1953. I was named [i]a long time[/i] after Mark Twain.

[Deepseafisher]

[quote]I was named after Mark Twain[/quote]
LoL. Thats great.

Yeah, I like Twain's writing. We read Huck Finn for school. There's really something great about the way he writes, isn't there?

[DanRad]

Interesting thinker. Some great quotes:

"There are lies, there are damned lies, and there are statistics."

[Mark Stone]

[quote][i]Originally posted by Deepseafisher [/i]
[b] There's really something great about the way he writes, isn't there? [/b][/quote] Twain's writing always seems to get to me emotionally. The real story why he deserted the confederate army and began his travels westward was that he killed a Union soldier. After he shot him, he came up and held the Union soldier's head as he died, and saw that he was a young man like him, with dreams and asperations, with family and loves, etc. After the soldier died in his arms, Twain could no longer stomach war. The description of that event always haunted me. BTW, the name of the book is "Roughing It" --