Jumping Frogs and Pudd'n Heads

We all have read either Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer in high school. Some of us might even say we suffered through them, although in my opinion the strength of the message in each book is worth the struggle. But Mark Twain was much more prolific than these two epics.

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Mark Twain is the pseudonym for Samuel Longhorne Clemens, born this day in 1835. He became one of America's best known writers, humorists, and lecturers, but he began life in small town Missouri, the sixth child of seven. He was apprenticed to a publisher at age 13. He also worked for his older brother, who founded a newspaper in Hannibal, Missouri. He changed course for awhile in his early twenties, to become a steamboat pilot. That only lasted 2 years, when the Civil War halted riverboat traffic on the Mississippi.

His time on the River influenced the rest of his life. The term "Mark Twain" is a term used on riverboats to denote that the river is only 2 fathoms (12 feet) deep, the minimum mount of water a riverboat needs in order to navigate the Mississippi. He first used the pseudonym in a humorous travel letter he wrote for the Virginia City Enterprise in 1861. In 1864, he moved to San Francisco and wrote "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".

And now we're back to jumping frogs.

If you have only ever read Mark Twain's epics, you're well on your way to understanding American literature. However, if that's all you've read, you're missing out.

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is a short story published in 1865. Jim Smiley is a compulsive gambler who catches and trains a frog he names Dan'l Webster. He bets a stranger that Dan'l can out jump any frog, and they lay down the cash. Poor Dani'l. His heart is just too heavy to jump. *wink wink

My favorite Mark Twain book, however, is Pudd'nhead Wilson. It is one of his later works. It's a commentary on post-Civil War society, but it makes a point valid even today, which is that we should not judge on outward appearances. But, oh my! That poor mother!

I hope I have intrigued you enough that you'll search out one or both of these stories. Let me know your opinion of them. In the meantime, happy birthday, Samuel!