GREAT WRITERS: MARK TWAIN, THE GREAT AMERICAN STORYTELLER

Mark Twain taken by A. F. Bradley in New York, 1907

Source:  steamboattimes.com

Author:  A.F. Bradley, New York

Public domain 

Via WIKIMEDIA COMMONS 

MARK TWAIN: THE GREAT AMERICAN STORYTELLER

Few writers in world literature have captured the humour, contradictions, and restless spirit of a nation as brilliantly as Mark Twain. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, he grew up on the banks of the Mississippi River—a landscape that would later become the beating heart of his most cherished stories. Twain’s writings sparkle with wit, mischief, and a deep understanding of human nature. They made him not only America's greatest humorist but also one of its keenest observers.

A Childhood by the River

Twain’s formative years in Hannibal, Missouri, were full of adventure and innocence. The Mississippi River, with its steamboats, forests, and mysterious islands, became his playground—and later the setting of his masterpieces. After his father died early, the young Clemens worked as an apprentice printer and later as a typesetter. But his eyes were always on the river.

At age 21 he fulfilled his dream of becoming a steamboat pilot, earning the river term “Mark Twain” as his pen name. The phrase, meaning “two fathoms deep,” signaled safe waters for boats. It would go on to signify safe passage into the hearts of millions of readers.

The Writer Is Born

Twain’s early travels shaped his worldview. A restless adventurer, he worked as a miner, journalist, and lecturer. His humorous short piece “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” brought him national fame. With its comic exaggeration and brilliant storytelling, it introduced America to a unique literary voice—irreverent, bold, and unmistakably original.

His travel books such as “The Innocents Abroad” and “Roughing It” showcased his talent for observing human quirks with gentle satire. Everywhere he went, he soaked up stories, characters, and contradictions—turning ordinary encounters into unforgettable narratives.

Masterpieces of Childhood and Freedom

In “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876), Twain immortalised the mischief, curiosity, and unfiltered joy of boyhood. The scenes of whitewashing a fence, exploring caves, and running away to become pirates have become part of world folklore.

But it was “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884) that secured Twain’s place among the greats. Often called the first truly “American” novel, it is a powerful journey down the Mississippi with Huck and the runaway slave, Jim. Under its humour lies a deep moral exploration of freedom, friendship, and the cruelty of racial prejudice. Ernest Hemingway famously remarked, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain—Huckleberry Finn.”

Twain the Social Critic

Behind the laughter was a sharp critic of society. Twain exposed hypocrisy, corruption, and injustice with fearless honesty. His book “The Gilded Age”, co-written with Charles Dudley Warner, gave America the phrase that now describes an era of glittering prosperity masking deep social problems.

He attacked imperialism, slavery, and religious dogmatism with biting clarity. His humour often carried a sting—yet it was rooted in compassion for the common person.

Later Years: Tragedy and Reflection

Despite his global fame and financial success, Twain’s later years were marked by personal sorrow. He suffered the loss of his wife and children, and endured severe financial troubles. But even in grief, he continued to write with courage and honesty.

His autobiography and late essays reveal a more philosophical Twain—ironic, wise, and seasoned by life’s trials.

A Legacy That Lives On

Mark Twain remains one of the most quoted writers of all time. His wit is timeless, his observations razor-sharp, and his stories universal. Whether he makes us laugh, think, or question our assumptions, he continues to speak to readers across generations.

He once said, “The secret of getting ahead is getting started.”

Twain got started with a pen, a river, and an irrepressible curiosity—and the world of literature has never been the same.

Grateful thanks to ChatGPT for its great help and support in creating this blogpost

and steamboattimes.com, A.F. Bradley, New York and  WIKIMEDIA COMMONS for the image of Mark Twain!🙏🙏🙏

GREAT WRITERS: R K NARAYAN

Remembering the literary enchanter of story telling, also called often the Indian Chekove by many, Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami who was born on this day in 1906. A pure artist as he was, he had no explicit commitment to art. He could give life to the plethora of his ordinary characters (Raju, Rosie, Swami, Natraj, Vasu, Sri Ram, Bharati, Krishna and many others) so that they may live and breathe in the fictional town of Malgudi ( like Wessex of Thomas Hardy) and may ever embrace all types of influences that come in course of their living leading to unpredictable rise or fall in their circumstances. R.K. Narayan dealt his stories with a subtle sense of irony and an undercurrent of racy humour in a language quite simple, yet amazingly elegant and catchy. His speciality lies in the echoing of Indian social complexities through his engrossing stories with a touch of matchless irony and humour.Through Malgudi (and his other stories), RK Narayan displayed everyday Indian life, which often described the juxtapositions between modernization and ancient traditions. In doing so, he showed the world what life was like in India and the culture and sensibilities of its people. This was important because during the British Raj, the popular portrayals of India were created by its colonizers rather than its people. Books like EM Forster’s A Passage to India have overrated opinions about India. It is a far cry from truth because the colonizers are prioritized. Narayan, however, prioritized Indians in his stories absorbingly.  Even after being disembodied after death, a writer lives through his characters and their dialogues. So Narayan is with us and will continue to be with the posterity in all times to come. I remember my favourite writer on his birthday with his brief and simple, but sane and appealing observation on writing, "You become writer by writing. It is a yoga" and perhaps it was this yoga that gave him a long life of 95 years despite numerous highs and lows of his life. I pray God sincerely to send Narayan once again in this land of ours to amuse and enthral us with his newly invented stories. Narayan's literary friend Graham Greene observed:

"Whom next shall I meet in Malgudi? That is the thought that comes to me when I close a novel of Mr Narayan. I don't wait for another novel. I wait to go out of my door into those loved and shabby streets and see with excitement and a certainty of pleasure a stranger approaching, past the bank, the cinema, the haircutting saloon, a stranger who will greet me I know with some unexpected and revealing phrase that will open a door on to yet another human existence." 

Happy Birthday Indian Chekov at your place in heaven. 

🌺🙏🏼🙇🏻‍♂️🌺

GREAT WRITERS

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer and journalist. Known for an economical, understated style that influenced later 20th-century writers, he has been romanticized for his adventurous lifestyle and outspoken, blunt public image. Some of his seven novels, six short-story collections and two non-fiction works have become classics of American literature, and he was awarded the 1954 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. After high school, he spent six months as a reporter for The Kansas City Star before enlisting in the Red Cross. He served as an ambulance driver on the Italian Front in World War I and was seriously wounded by shrapnel in 1918. In 1921, Hemingway moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent for the Toronto Star and was influenced by the modernist writers and artists of the "Lost Generation" expatriate community. His debut novel, The Sun Also Rises, was published in 1926. In 1928, Hemingway returned to the U.S., where he settled in Key West, Florida. His experiences during the war supplied material for his 1929 novel A Farewell to Arms.

In 1937, Hemingway went to Spain to cover the Spanish Civil War, which formed the basis for his 1940 novel For Whom the Bell Tolls, written in Havana, Cuba. During World War II, Hemingway was present with Allied troops as a journalist at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris. In 1952, his novel The Old Man and the Sea was published to considerable acclaim, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. On a 1954 trip to Africa, Hemingway was seriously injured in two successive plane crashes, leaving him in pain and ill health for much of the rest of his life. He committed suicide at his house in Ketchum, Idaho, in 1961.

Hemingway's legacy to American literature is his style: writers who came after him either emulated or avoided it. After his reputation was established with the publication of The Sun Also Rises, he became the spokesperson for the post–World War I generation, having established a style to follow. His books were burned in Berlin in 1933, "as being a monument of modern decadence", and disavowed by his parents as "filth". Reynolds asserts the legacy is that "[Hemingway] left stories and novels so starkly moving that some have become part of our cultural heritage."

Benson believes the details of Hemingway's life have become a "prime vehicle for exploitation", resulting in a Hemingway industry. The Hemingway scholar Hallengren [sv] believes the "hard-boiled style" and the machismo must be separated from the author himself. Benson agrees, describing him as introverted and private as J. D. Salinger, although Hemingway masked his nature with braggadocio.

During World War II, Salinger met and corresponded with Hemingway, whom he acknowledged as an influence. In a letter to Hemingway, Salinger claimed their talks "had given him his only hopeful minutes of the entire war" and jokingly "named himself national chairman of the Hemingway Fan Clubs". In 2002, a fossil billfish from the Danata Formation of Turkmenistan was named Hemingwaya after Hemingway, who prominently featured a marlin in The Old Man and the Sea.

Mary Hemingway established the Hemingway Foundation in 1965, and in the 1970s, she donated her husband's papers to the John F. Kennedy Library. In 1980, a group of Hemingway scholars gathered to assess the donated papers, subsequently forming the Hemingway Society, "committed to supporting and fostering Hemingway scholarship", publishing The Hemingway Review. His granddaughter Margaux Hemingway was a supermodel and actress and co-starred with her younger sister Mariel in the 1976 movie Lipstick. Her death was later ruled a death by suicide.

Today, 21 July, is his birthday.

Extract from WIKIPEDIA, THE FREE ENCYCLOPEDIA.

Grateful thanks to WIKIPEDIA.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License; additional terms may apply. 

GREAT WRITERS

*Charles John Huffam Dickens* (7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today.

Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at age 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father John was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years, he returned to school before beginning his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years; wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and nonfiction articles; lectured and performed readings extensively; was a tireless letter writer; and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, education and other social reforms.

Dickens's literary success began with the 1836 serial publication of The Pickwick Papers, a publishing phenomenon—thanks largely to the introduction of the character Sam Weller in the fourth episode—that sparked Pickwick merchandise and spin-offs. Within a few years, Dickens had become an international literary celebrity, famous for his humour, satire and keen observation of character and society. His novels, most of them published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.  Cliffhanger endings in his serial publications kept readers in suspense. The instalment format allowed Dickens to evaluate his audience's reaction, and he often modified his plot and character development based on such feedback. For example, when his wife's chiropodist expressed distress at the way Miss Mowcher in David Copperfield seemed to reflect her own disabilities, Dickens improved the character with positive features. His plots were carefully constructed and he often wove elements from topical events into his narratives.Masses of the illiterate poor would individually pay a halfpenny to have each new monthly episode read to them, opening up and inspiring a new class of readers.

His 1843 novella A Christmas Carol remains especially popular and continues to inspire adaptations in every creative medium. Oliver Twist and Great Expectations are also frequently adapted and, like many of his novels, evoke images of early Victorian London. His 1853 novel Bleak House, a satire on the judicial system, helped support a reformist movement that culminated in the 1870s legal reform in England. A Tale of Two Cities (set in London and Paris) is regarded as his best-known work of historical fiction. The most famous celebrity of his era, he undertook, in response to public demand, a series of public reading tours in the later part of his career. The term Dickensian is used to describe something that is reminiscent of Dickens and his writings, such as poor social or working conditions, or comically repulsive characters.

Dickens was the most popular novelist of his time, and remains one of the best-known and most-read of English authors. His works have never gone out of print, and have been adapted continually for the screen since the invention of cinema, with at least 200 motion pictures and TV adaptations based on Dickens's works documented. Many of his works were adapted for the stage during his own lifetime—early productions included The Haunted Man which was performed in the West End's Adelphi Theatre in 1848—and, as early as 1901, the British silent film Scrooge, or, Marley's Ghost was made by Walter R. Booth.  Contemporaries such as publisher Edward Lloyd cashed in on Dickens's popularity with cheap imitations of his novels, resulting in his own popular 'penny dreadfuls'.

Dickens created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest British novelist of the Victorian era. From the beginning of his career in the 1830s, his achievements in English literature were compared to those of Shakespeare.  Dickens's literary reputation, however, began to decline with the publication of Bleak House in 1852–53. Philip Collins calls Bleak House "a crucial item in the history of Dickens's reputation. Reviewers and literary figures during the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s, saw a 'drear decline' in Dickens, from a writer of 'bright sunny comedy ... to dark and serious social' commentary". The Spectator called Bleak House "a heavy book to read through at once ... dull and wearisome as a serial"; Richard Simpson, in The Rambler, characterised Hard Times as "this dreary framework"; Fraser's Magazine thought Little Dorrit "decidedly the worst of his novels".  All the same, despite these "increasing reservations amongst reviewers and the chattering classes, 'the public never deserted its favourite'". Dickens's popular reputation remained unchanged, sales continued to rise, and Household Words and later All the Year Round were highly successful.

He was born on this day in 1812 (FEBRUARY 7, 1812)

Grateful thanks to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia 

GREAT WRITERS

Ruskin Bond awarded Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman for Lifetime Achievement

Legendary writer Ruskin Bond was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award  of the Ramnath Goenka Sahithya Samman awards on 15 November this year.

Ruskin Bond could not attend the Award ceremony personally. He, however, sent a video message from Mussoorie, saying, "This is really a happy moment for me. Here I am in my 91st year receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award and I only wish I could be with you. I am sending my beloved granddaughter Srishti to receive the award because I am certainly not going to let it pass me by. Thank you for the citation and the honour."

Ruskin Bond (born May 19, 1934) is renowned for his contributions to children's literature and adult fiction. He is one of India's most admired and prolific writers.

Ruskin Bond began writing at an early age. His first novel, "The Room on the Roof," was published in 1956. The book received the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1957, making Bond one of the youngest authors to receive the award.

Ruskin Bond has written more than 500 short stories, essays, and novels, including 69 books for children. His writing mainly explores themes of nature, love, friendship, and  human nature. Some of his notable works include:

The Room on the Roof (1956), The Blue Umbrella (1974), A Flight of Pigeons (1978),।Time Stops at Shamli" (1989), Our Trees Still Grow in Dehra" (1991), Rain in the Mountains" (1993), Delhi Is Not Far" (1994) "The Best of Ruskin Bond (1994), The Room on the Roof" (1995),  Coming Round the Mountain" (1999), Tales of Fosterganj" (2001), The India I Love" (2001), A Face in the Dark and Other Haunt (2002), The Adventures of Rusty" (2004), The Wind on Haunted Hill" (2006), The Parrot Who Wouldn't Talk and Other Stories" (2007), The Book of Nature (2010) Mahabharata for Children (2013), Looking for the Rainbow" (2014), A Bond with Nature" (2016), Confessions of a Bookworm" (2017), The Great Train Journey" (2018), The World Outside My Window" (2020), and A Little Book of Love and Companionship (2020).

Ruskin Bond has received a number of awards and honors for his contributions to literature, including:

- John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (1957)

- Sahitya Akademi Award (1992)

- Padma Shri (1999), 

- Padma Bhushan (2014),

- Sahitya Akademi Fellowship (2021)

Ruskin Bond lives in Landour, Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, with his adopted family. He is known for his simple lifestyle.

D P.Pant/FB112024