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Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain

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Travels Of a Begining Genius
Genius is to a large degree inexplicable. We can't explain what makes a Mozart or a Monet. We can try to figure out early life experiences, and make them fit and seem to predict future greatness. The exercise might not explain everything, but it might explain some things, and it certainly could help understand the person who is the genius, even if it doesn't go far to explaining genius itself. That is the role played by _Lighting Out for the Territory: How Samuel Clemens Headed West and Became Mark Twain_ (Simon and Schuster) by Roy Morris, Jr. That Mark Twain was an American genius is inarguable; but his early adult life was full of caprice and of coincidence, and he might have wound up just another miner, or just another reporter, or he might have wound up dead (for he did take his chances). Twain did wind up a brilliant writer and stage performer, and did so because of specific experiences he went through, experiences peculiar to himself and quite different from anything anyone else was doing. Morris reviews the years starting when the 25-year-old Clemens went west in 1861 until he returned east in 1867, and often through the quoted words of Twain himself we get an insightful and often rollicking portrait of the picaresque beginnings of an author of genius.

Clemens's career as a riverboat pilot was interrupted by the Civil War. He was almost drafted as a pilot by the Union, which drove him to the Confederacy. He was to write about his war service twenty years later in "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed," which Morris accurately describes as "a vision of the war's early days as a skylarking misadventure." With two weeks of so-called military service behind him, he withdrew back to home. His brother Orion was rewarded for his abolitionist stance with a patronage appointment within the newly created Nevada Territory, and Twain joined Orion for a stagecoach trip west. His trip was to provide the material for _Roughing It_. Morris gives a brief history of the stagecoach system, and describes the difficulties of life on the road. He was able to write hilariously later about the polygamy he saw in Salt Lake City, and his unexalted view of the Indians allowed him thirty years later to write the hilarious essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," in which he charged, "The poetic Indian - the Indian of Cooper and Longfellow - is only visible to the poet's eye." He failed as a silver miner. Returning dispirited to his cabin one day, he found a letter from the business manager of the Virginia City _Territorial Enterprise_, to which Clemens had been sending humorous letters. It was an offer of a $25 a week job as staff writer. Clemens learned that reporting the facts was just part of what a newspaper did, and that coloring the facts, or making them up, was part of the job, too. He was good at making things up, and caused such an uproar that he left for San Francisco shortly afterwards. He did eventually move on to a paper that accepted his satirical pieces, but feeling confined again, he lit out with pals for the mining camp of Jackass Hill.

Jackass Hill was in Calaveras County, and yes, it was here that he heard a former riverboat pilot tell the story about a frog filled with buckshot. The teller "was a dull person... he was entirely serious, for he was dealing with what to him were austere facts... he saw no humor in the tale." Twain knew that if he could write the story in that fashion, "that frog will jump around the world." Another pal told the story of the "Royal Nonesuch," a rascal that did a naughty turn on stage; and a version of the Nonesuch (which Twain ruefully had to clean up) appeared in _Huckleberry Finn_. When "The Jumping Frog" showed up in print, it indeed went around the world, and was a big step towards Twain's realization that with all the shortened careers he had crammed into his life until then, what he should be doing was writing and making people laugh. He was to take a trip to Hawaii, and to have a journalistic scoop there when a lifeboat from the doomed clipper _Hornet_ arrived after 43 days, but he was not to be a regular newspaperman again. Returning to San Francisco, he took to the stage to tell about Hawaii, and he delighted audiences, making comic performance a second career after humorous writing. "He had come west as Sam Clemens," writes Morris, "out-of-work riverboat pilot and (technically, at least) Confederate Army deserter. He was returning east as Mark Twain - increasingly renowned journalist, lecturer, and short story writer." Morris's book is enormous fun because of its fascinating subject, and it can make us all thankful that after dozens of false starts, Samuel Clemens found the calling for which he will never be forgotten.
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Samuel Clemens came west in 1861, a former steamboat pilot and would-be Confederate soldier with a hankering for money and a poison pen. He returned to the east in 1867 as Mark Twain, humorist par excellance and the leading light of post-war American literature. How that happened in the space of less than six years is the subject of "Lighting Out for the Territory," and it illuminates the important formative years of a budding literary genius.

Those familiar with Ron Powers's excellent "Mark Twain: A Life" will already know some of the events that shaped and influenced young Sam Clemens to flee the bloodbath of the encroaching Civil War and seek his fortune in the mines of the Nevada Territory, where he traveled alongside his politican brother. But for those who haven't read Powers's book, this serves as a volume all on its own about the important early years of Clemens/Twain's emergence on the national scene.

The book gives brief sketches from Clemens's early life (early death of his father and his beloved younger brother, his iteninerant work life before becoming pilot of a Mississippi riverboat, and his brief disasterous run as a Rebel guerilla in the early days of the War Between the States) and highlights the period from 1861, when Sam's brother Orion received an important government post in Nevada and took his brother along, to 1866, when Mark Twain came east to revel in the success of "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County." In between, we find a budding literary superstar as he finds prospecting for gold far too hard (despite the illusorary success of the Comstock Lode, most Old West prospectors met with little to show for their efforts) and resorting to working for local newspapers less as a reporter and more as a teller of tall tales. Many of those stories that he wrote, outright hoaxes in which a family were supposedly massacred or funds for a war-relief charity were funneled to a society promoting sexual relations between the races, serve as the genesis of everything that made Mark Twain such a transcendant and controversial figure.

Twain's life took a turn for the better when he came to Virginia City and found more success with his pen than with his pan. Roy Morris, Jr. writes extensively about Twain's development alongside the rough and tumble co-workers of his newspaper, men who helped shape his literary voice and influenced his choice of presenting himself. Twain ran afoul of the polite society of Carson City (not the first time that he'd find himself on the "wrong" end of the public moos) and lights out for San Francisco, eventually sailing for Hawaii and recounting the harrowing experiences of a shipwrecked crew's voyage against all hope to the islands for rescue. Twain successfully turned his writings on Hawaii into his first stage show, where he learned the lessons of contemporaries like Artemus Ward to tell funny stories with a straight face and, in a sense, help give birth to American stand-up comedy.

The book ends in 1867, with Twain aboard another ship, this one headed for Europe and the Holy Land, where he encounters his future brother-in-law and learns about the woman who will be his wife from a photo the other man carries on him. We leave Twain right on the cusp of his international reknown, when he transcends the "regional humorist" tag and gives birth to American literature as we know it. How Twain got there, and the darkness that colored his white-suited last days, are for another time. But "Lighting Out for the Territory" illuminates the early days of a modern American giant, before he became such. In order to know where Mark Twain ended up, you have to know where he began, and this book does a good job of showing that.

If you've read Mark Twain's book, "Roughing It," then you will be familiar with this slice of his life. Twain wrote about his western experiences in Nevada, California, and Hawaii within the pages of that 1872 memoir. But in his singular fashion, that narrative was undoubtedly "tweaked" a bit, with both omission and exaggeration used for greatest literary effect. Here author Roy Morris, Jr., unravels the threads to uncover The Rest of the Story.

He begins with the basics: "Samuel Clemens went west in 1861; Mark Twain returned east six years later. This is the story of what happened in between." (p.4) We gleefully join in on the journey to witness the transformation of a young riverboat pilot into a professional storyteller. Certainly the state of journalism at that time -- specifically the kind found in the 1860s American West -- contributes to the popularity of the fabricated report and the tall tale. As his fellow reporter Dan DeQuille tells him, "Get the facts first, then you can distort them as much as you like." It is in that fertile field where Clemens begins to develop his sense of word-craft. He not only absorbs it: he thrives upon it. In more than a few cases, it leads him right into trouble with reporters and editors and esteemed members of various communities. Yet all of his choices and paths eventually culminate in that magical night in San Francisco, where "The trouble starts at 8." Finally, success is his.

Morris employs a conversational approach to his topic as well; and it makes for a fun and informative read, with some laugh-out-loud moments. "Lighting Out for the Territory" is an interesting and amusing history that is recommended for a wide audience -- even for those who haven't read Mark Twain's account of it; and even for those folks who are not especially Mark Twain fans. Readers may nod in appreciation at the end and say, "Oh, OK, *now* it all makes sense."

This earnest and well informed writer does his honest best by his subject. However, he is overwhelmed by his hero and material for the first 25% of his text. The first few chapters of the book read like a frantic litany of all the scrapes and misadventures Mark/Samuel found himself in while out in the Wild West. Fortunately for the reader and author, the author eventually hits his stride and the persistent are rewarded by a fine and very funny account of how Mr. Clemens became Mr.Twain.

Prior to LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY, Samuel Clemons was an itinerant printer and a river boat pilot. He loved piloting the Mississippi so much he may have never left the profession if it hadn't been for the Civil War.

About the most instructive thing about this book is that it shows how much Mark Twain owed to his trip out west to strike it rich. There were lots of storytellers out there for one thing, and he listened. "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," his first big success, was owed to another miner, old Ben Coon, who told the story first. Twain rewrote and embellished other stories he heard in the mining camps in ROUGHING IT. He also owed his lecture style to Artemis Ward, whom he listened to carefully and imitated. And there was a stretch where he was either fired or quit his job on a San Francisco newspaper and contemplated suicide. Brett Harte offered him money to contribute to his literary magazine which may have saved his life.

Then there was Twain's trip to Hawaii, which furnished material for the first lecture he gave. He sent back "twenty-five or thirty" letters to the San Francisco Enterprise and also gained a lust for travel and a reputation as a travel writer that continued for most of his life. He also gained his first real "scoop" in Hawaii. Captain Josiah A. Mitchell, twelve crew members, and a pair of passengers survived the wreck of the clipper ship "Hornet" and spent forty-three days in a lifeboat, coming ashore on the Big Island, two hundred miles south of Honolulu. His reworked story was published in HARPER'S WEEKLY, with the byline Mark Swain.

We also get to see Twain's famous bad luck when it came to business investments. He owned "feet" in mining stock that he was living off of in San Francisco, but after he left for San Francisco, his partners sold their shares for something like three million dollars; his shares were worthless. Perhaps if Twain had been writing today his career never would have gotten off the ground. While at work on THE ENTERPRISE, a Virginia City newspaper, he fictionalized the massacre of a man and his family he entitled "The Dutch Nick's Massacre." Apparently this was Twain's idea of satire, as the murderer was Philip Hopkins, a mine owner driven mad by bad investments and crooked bankers. But just about everybody believed it. He apologized in print, saying "I take it all back."

Mark Twain died in 1910, leaving a three volume autobiography that was not to be published for a hundred years. This is the year, folks. One should remember, though, that he wrote the thing after he'd lost his wife and two daughters, which may be why the famously cynical Twain didn't want anybody to read it quite yet.

I have never read a biography of Mark Twain, so there was much I did not know about his early life. So maybe the book is more interesting to me than to those who know more about Twain.

Anyway, I found this book enjoyable to read. It was interesting not only because of Twain, but also just because of the history of the time the author describes. Twain's on and off attempts at journalism are very amusing as are his and his brother's life in politics.

The writing style is not only informative, but fun to read. I would guess anyone who enjoys Mark Twain's writing would find this book enjoyable in learning how Twain's early life shaped his later life.

With the definition of twain meaning two, this is an entertaining and informative look into how Samuel Clemens headed west and met his other self, Mark Twain.

Huck Finn. Tom Sawyer. Life on the Mississippi. Roughing It.

We're all familiar with the man through his many writings. But I too, like another reviewer, had never read anything of absolute substance regarding Mark Twain (biography, personal writings, letters, etc.) Glad I did.

We all have chapters in life and this is totally devoted to Twain's younger years out west attempting to find himself. He dabbled with several occupations; river boat pilot, miner, the political arena with his brother Orion, etc. then stumbled upon the pen. The rest is history.

Kicking up the literary dust with articles for several newspapers in Nevada and California, he slowly but ultimately found his calling. We are all grateful.

The book itself may be somewhat too scholarly for some--"college words"--but still a fast paced, perceptive glimpse into the genius of this man.
The author does a commendable task of picking through the literature, filling in the gaps of what is fiction and what is not on this period of Twain's life.

This is a short but enjoyable trip through the American West of the 1860's with a young writer before his great fame. The famous writer's brother, Orion Clemens, received a commission from President Lincoln to govern the Territory of Nevada. While the Civil War raged "back east", Orion traveled with his fun loving war-averse younger brother Sam. This book interprets their trip and Sam's subsequent trips farther west, eventually to Hawaii.

For those who want the primary source, Roughing It (Mark Twain Library) by Mark Twain is still in print. If you plan on reading it, I recommend you read this one first. If you've already read it, reading this will enhance your experience.

As an interpretive work, the author, Roy Morris, gives the background on what Clemens did and what he wrote. He tells you when the tale is tall. He cites other travelers in and around this time such as Richard Burton, Horace Greeley and Herman Melville (before) and Oscar Wilde and Robert Lewis Stevenson (after). He explains potential motivations, relationships and potential dynamics with friends and rivals.

It is in this period as a journalist (he is also a prospector, a miner and assistant to his brother), Clemens tries out a number of pseudonyms before settling on Mark Twain. His career in fiction begins as a journalist where he tends to stretch the truth to produce a good story.

The reader is taken back to a time before so many things became "established". A rogue can leave a hotel without paying (how can one do this in the credit card era?) or a regiment in the time of war. Careers, such as law, journalism, or the ministry could be persued without any credentials. Even jails seem to be fluid, with some inmates free to come and go.

Better than all the above, the book is fun to read. You'll laugh out loud at the Clemens wit and outlook.

"Sam, for his part, 'was armed to the teeth with a pitiful little Smith & Wesson's seven-shooter, which carried a ball like a homeopathic pill, and took the whole seven shots to make a dose for an adult.' The pistol, a .22-caliber 1857 model breechloader, had a four-inch barrel and was not accurate beyond a range of fifteen yards ... Thus suitably armed and accoutered, (Sam Clemens) set out for the wild and wooly West ... He was lighting out for the Territory." - from LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY

Those acquainted with the literary output of Mark Twain, a.k.a. Samuel Clemens, or perhaps with the incomparable stage impersonation of him by Hal Holbrook, may visualize the author as an aging, white-haired man. LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY by Roy Morris reveals that even this great American writer was once immature, foolish and directionless.

The period of the narrative is July 1861 to December 1866, during which time the young Clemens journeyed up the Missouri River then overland to Carson City, NV via Salt Lake, resided in Carson City and Virginia City while primarily working first as a miner then newspaper reporter, then visited the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) between residencies in San Francisco, and finally becoming a comedic lecturer before embarking on the trans-Atlantic trip in 1867 that resulted in the book, The Innocents Abroad. His fitful stops and starts at a variety of jobs and money-making schemes are perhaps demonstrative of any male of that age at any time and place. It wasn't always pretty, but certainly provided material for subsequent self-deprecating humor. The author's own dry wit in the telling only contributes to the enjoyment of the account.

Had it been included, a map of the Carson City - Gold Hill - Virginia City - Unionville - Aurora locale would've been helpful. The book does include a photo section of eighteen reasonably useful images.

LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY, while not riveting, is competently done. It reminds me to view again a visual presentation of Holbrook's Mark Twain Tonight and whets my appetite for Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers, which waits on my bookshelf.

The life and writings of Mark Twain are now very much a part of American literary and cultural history. No other native-born writer spoke with precisely his brand of down-home folksiness and cracker barrel wisdom. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn are as alive today as any characters in American fiction.

We all know too that "Mark Twain" was the pen name adopted by young Samuel Clemens of Hannibal, Missouri, and that it was a phrase he picked up from his fellow pilots on Mississippi River boats in the late 1850s and early 1860s. What many do not realize, however, is that Clemens/Twain found his literary voice and his new identity during five-and-a-half years of bumming around the wild Nevada Territory as newspaperman, prospector, businessman, barfly, lecturer, travel writer and refugee from respectability.

Historian Roy Morris, Jr. has taken a look at this period in Twain's life and given us an entertaining account of his serio-comic misadventures. This is not scholarly history, nor is it a full-bore biography, as Twain's early life and his post-Nevada career are barely mentioned. Morris's focus is limited, and his touch is light.

The book begins with an account of the two brothers' epic stagecoach trek from Saint Joseph, Missouri, to Carson City, Nevada. It covered 1,400 miles, took 20 days, and is told by Morris with color and gusto. Once they were settled in the territorial capital of Carson City, Clemens, realizing that his brother Orion was an ineffectual bumbler, set about carving out a place for himself in local society. Newspapering was his choice, and he often fell back on it when other sources of income seemed insufficient.

Clemens had tried a number of pen names before settling on Mark Twain, and we all can be eternally grateful that he did not stick with W. Epaminondas Adrastus Perkins or Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass. "Mark Twain" first appeared in a newspaper in the wild frontier outpost of Virginia City, Nevada, on February 3, 1863, and has been with us ever since.

Twain built his newspaper career by a simple but effective strategy: he made things up. Always a lover of hoaxes, he delighted readers and discomfited competitors by spinning yarns that had little or no basis in fact. Morris seems to enjoy pointing this out and warns his readers that many of Twain's later biographers swallowed some of his fictions whole.

The most famous, purely literary product of Twain's western stay was the great short story "The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which made him famous in highbrow circles back east. Twain heard it first in the bar of a grubby mining camp from a fellow named Ben Coon, jotted the idea down in his notebook and elaborated it into one of American literature's small gems.

But newspaper work was not Twain's only western occupation. He also got caught up in the gold rush fever that brought wagonloads of tenderfoot easterners to Nevada hoping to strike it rich. Twain had no more luck than most of the others, but his comic-opera misadventures make enjoyable reading in Morris's lighthearted retelling. This is a shortish book, though it does have a lot of padding --- anecdotes about frontier characters that have no great relevance to Morris's main subject, but that make fun reading anyway. Twain's life intersected with those of several famous Americans, including Brigham Young, Bret Harte, U.S. Grant and Charles Farrar ("Artemus Ward") Browne. Twain reported that Young himself had 72 wives but confided that "ten or eleven" was all you really needed.

Before returning back east, Twain spent four months in Hawaii, observing the local customs and making good-natured fun of them as only he could. So droll were his observations and so enjoyable is Morris's account of the time that the reader is genuinely disappointed when Twain actually returns to the respectably dull life of the east.

This is history with a light touch. Morris has transplanted much of his material from Twain's autobiography and from several of his other books, notably ROUGHING IT. Even when Twain is spinning fantasies or exaggerating effects, he is grandly entertaining, and Morris conveys him to us with deadpan good humor.