Customer Reviews

Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain's Closest Friend

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Steve Courtney's comprehensive and insightful biography Joseph Hopkins Twichell offers a valuable addition to the understanding of a man and an era. Born in Southington, Connecticut, son of a tannery owner, Twichell became the pastor of Hartford's Asylum Hill Congregational Church just after the Civil War. He held that post for more than forty years, turning the church into one of the most illustrious parishes in the country. His congregation included some of the nation's wealthiest and most powerful, but Twichell lived out his mission to aid the disenfranchised in Hartford and elsewhere. Although mostly known today as Samuel Clemens' friend, Twichell's own active and varied life was emblematic of the period in which he lived.
An incident in Twichell's younger, wilder days at Yale created a tolerance for other religions. He invited rabbis, Catholic priests, and ministers of other Protestant denominations to participate in activities at Asylum Hill. He promoted international ties with Chinese students and scholars. Among the most affecting chapters of the book is "Peru," in which Twichell, his Chinese protégé, and a homeopathic doctor investigate the treatment of Chinese laborers around Lima and in the mountains. What they found horrified them - beatings, starvation, virtually nonexistent housing and clothing, at least one instance in which a man was burned alive. Their efforts contributed to ending the
brutal system.
The minister practiced tolerance at home, as he invited Booker T. Washington to speak at the church. Twichell set the tone for this sort of activity early in his life. Courtney notes that while serving as a chaplain during the Civil War, "Twichell amused himself `devising radicalisms' for the Rebs, one of which was to tell them of his `hope and confidence that I would live to see a negro President of the U.S.' " A brilliant author, Courtney presents his subject as a devout man dedicated to the service of the Lord in a country undergoing rapid change. Hartford was in the middle of fantastic growth during the latter part of the nineteenth century, with its wealthy financial institutions and insurance companies, as well as its weapons factories. Amidst all this wealth lived a large but hidden population of poor, and Twichell saw to it that his patrician congregation donated their time and money to alleviating poverty.
Reverend Twichell was also a man of nearly super human energy and strength. During the war, he marched for miles carrying the packs and weapons of foot soldiers too ill to manage for themselves. He wrote to his father that he could carry "two or three mens burdens and march without much discomfort." Later he and Clemens regularly walked from their homes near the western end of Hartford up Talcott Mountain, a round trip of some sixteen miles and 1,000 feet high. When he and his family spent summers in the Keene Valley in upstate New York, the minister hiked to Indian Pass Trail, which the guidebooks describe as "grueling." One amusing passage involves an aborted trek from East Hartford to Boston that Clemens and Twichell undertook as a publicity stunt. They walked for the first 35 miles but rode the rest of the way because the great author's feet hurt.
The excerpts from Twichell's sermons show him to be a thoughtful man who could be eloquent when the occasion arose. Many of his letters to family and friends ring with heart-felt emotion. But he was no equal for his good friend. (Courtney says the style of Twichell's speeches and articles ranged from "clunky and spare to the florid and cliché ridden." Clemens observed that Twichell could tell wonderful stories but "couldn't acquit himself with a pen." Of course the Joseph Hopkins Twichell benefits from drawing on the words of one of the world's funniest and most insightful writers. Clemens tweaked his friend by calling Asylum Hill "the Church of the Holy Speculators." He also used their walks for inspiration. Courtney shows again and again the contrast between the questioning, cynical one-time Confederate soldier whose mind ran to the mundane, versus the Yankee pastor who saw the hand of God in all things and who seemingly managed to live above the petty aspects of life.
One reaches the conclusion of this book with a sense of sadness and loss - that this man of great compassion does not live now, when we could all benefit from his unassuming righteousness and good works. He lived his faith by responding to his own changing times and truly does "become the life of Christ," as he urged in one of his sermons.

Steve Courtney has produced a biography of Joseph Twichell that will enthrall not only Twichellites and Hartfordians but also anyone who loves good biography. I found this book a marvel of prodigious research, brilliant writing, and fair-minded analysis. It stands with the best of biographies and immediately brings to mind Robert Richardson's masterful explorations of Thoreau ("Henry Thoreau: A Life of the Mind") and Emerson ("Emerson: The Mind on Fire"). Because Mark Twain still enjoys great fame and Twichell was one of Twain's closest friends, this book will be pitched mainly to Twain lovers and scholars. But don't let that fool you. If you're interested in biography as an art-form or simply want to immerse yourself in the social and intellectual currents of nineteeth century America, this book demands attention. Highly recommended!

This is a terrific gem of a book about a local Hartford preacher whose life from humble beginnings in emerging industrial Connecticut intersects with many of the history changing events of the day - the Civil War, Reconstruction, the Guilded Age, and the turn of the century - all while maintaining a close and highly amusing friendship with Mark Twain.

This book is well written and truly brings to life some of New England's best religious, political, and literary personalties.

Should be required reading for any scholar of early/mid-American history.