Mark Twain: On Film, 1909

December 11, 2012

There is something amazing – and a little creepy – about seeing Mark Twain on film. Paris Review:

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first published on December 10, 1884, in England. It remains one of the most-challenged American novels. In its honor, a 1909 Edison film of Mark Twain, taken at his home, Stormfield, in Connecticut.

Happy Birthday (yesterday, anyway), Huckleberry Finn. First edition cover:

Bonus Twain quote, from his 1897 travelogue, Following the Equator, and, more specifically, from the chapter epigraphs under the heading “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” and “The Pudd’nhead Maxims”:

THE PUDD’NHEAD MAXIMS

THESE WISDOMS ARE FOR THE LURING OF YOUTHTOWARD HIGH MORAL ALTITUDES. THE AUTHORDID NOT GATHER THEM FROM PRACTICE, BUTFROM OBSERVATION. TO BE GOOD IS NOBLE;BUT TO SHOW OTHERS HOW TO BE GOODIS NOBLER, AND NO TROUBLE.

The quote (finally):