Mark Twain didn’t grow up in poverty. His dad was a judge, after all. Yet the young Sam Clemens was not bound for a fancy Ivy League education—quite the contrary. Sam began his education like me, by avoiding studies. But Sam was blessed with an uncanny ability to spell almost any word, a skill, by the way, that Sam placed little stock in. (“—for although good spelling was my one accomplishment I was never able to greatly respect it.”[1])
Eventually, Sam did end up as a doctor, but this was by virtue of honorary degrees bestowed on him in recognition of his vast and worthy contributions to literature. We all know how well-deserved all his honors were. Sam knew it, too. He also knew that he never would have achieved his recognition if it were not for the education that he cobbled for himself—at the public library! It’s true. Go to the library and look it up.
Even though the young Sam’s spelling skills must have been a big part of his life-long love of words and language, spelling words correctly had little to do with his future acclaim.
Mark Twain’s genius was honed by his imagination. It was roughed into shape on the mighty Mississippi, first as a deck-hand and then as riverboat captain. It was touched by his travels, his prospecting, his reporting and his writing. And his genius was two-fold—it was his vast curiosity and his minute powers of observation. The evidence for this is shown by his enduring fascination with new discoveries, that is to say, with science!
Nikola Tesla, the brilliant Serbian-American inventor, had this to say about the power of Mark Twain’s literature and the power of friendship.
``I had hardly completed my course at the Real Gymnasium when I was prostrated with a dangerous illness or rather, a score of them, and my condition became so desperate that I was given up by physicians. During this period I was permitted to read constantly, obtaining books from the Public Library which had been neglected and entrusted to me for classification of the works and preparation of the catalogues. One day I was handed a few volumes of new literature unlike anything I had ever read before and so captivating as to make me utterly forget my hopeless state. They were the earlier works of Mark Twain and to them might have been due the miraculous recovery which followed. Twenty-five years later, when I met Mr. Clemens and we formed a friendship between us, I told him of the experience and was amazed to see that great man of laughter burst into tears.''[2]
Image: Nicola Tesla circa 1890, long-time friend and mentor to Mark Twain[3]
[1] The Autobiography of Mark Twain, edited by Charles Neider
[2] See: http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/ontwain.htm (Nikola Tesla, "My Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla", Hart Bros., 1982. Originally appeared in Electrical Experimenter magazine, 1919.)
[3] See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_circa_1890.jpeg This image (or other media file) is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.