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To Mark Twaints Hannibal Missouri

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To Mark Twaints Hannibal Missouri A VISIT TO MARK TWAINTS HANNIBAL MISSOURI by Merritt G. Aljets t'I eame in with Halley!s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expeet to go out with it. It will be the greatest disapPointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet." Mark Twain quoted on a 1985 USA Aerogram ' Watching Halley's comet was a popular pastime in 1986; however, some people may not have realized that its two most recent past returns in 1835 and 1910 eoincided with the birth and death months of one of America's most popular writers--Mark Twain. Mairk Twain, the riverman's cal1 signifying a depth of two fathoms, was the pen name used by the young writer whose real narne was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Samuel grew up in a small town in Missouri named Hannibal. When John Marshall Clemens moved his family there in 1839, travel overland by wagon or stageeoach and up the Mississippi river on the stearnboats were the primary means of reaehing the town. At that time, Hannibal was only 20 years old and less than 500 people lived there. By 1840, the population was about 1000, and by 1844, it was reported to have had two or three each of several kinds of contemporary shops and industries and two ehurehes. A primary cause of Hannibal's quick growth was that, because of its location on - 81 the nmagnifieient" MissisSippi, it became one of the main stops on a route to the west during the Gold Rush of 1848. By the end of the decade Hannibal had a population of about 3000. Sam Clemens lived in Hannibal for thirteen and a half years until he was almost eighteen, and this had a lifelong effeet on his writing. In fact, one admiring eritic,Bernard DeVoto, wrote that "Hannibal is the most important single faet in the life of Samuel Clemens the person and Mark Twain the writer.t'i Several times, Twain recreates the town in his writings. The Adventunes of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberiey Finn are the two best known attempts with Tom Sawyer being the least disguised, but he also used Hannibal in Life on the Mississippi, The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson. Hannibal becarne a setting for some stories, and its inhabitants became characters in those and others. He states in the preface to Tom Sawyer that "Most of the adventures reeorded in this book really oecurred; one or two were experi- ences of my own, the rest of those boys who were sehoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual; he is a combination of three boys whom I knew"2 Sam's memories of Hannibal seem to have been mostly happy ones, and, indeed, he refers to it as "St. Petersburg in Tom Sawyen." Some critics say that eould also be read "heaven." However, the opposite aspect of Hannibal is also represented by murders, robberies, drunkeness, and so on whieh are also drawn from Sam's personal knowledge of happenings in the town. For example, Justin Kaplan reports -82- in his book, Mark Twain and His World, that when S'am was eight years old he entered his father's law offiee one night and diseovered the body of a stabbed man.3 In addition, the river brought all kinds of people to Hannibal: freighters, movers, drifters, gold seekers, emigrants looking for land, Indians, hunters, and trappers. Also, since this was before the Civi1 War, slavery was permitted in Missouri though DeVoto says beeause Missouri is situated in what he calls the "Great Valley" the slavery was modified with the result that the slaves were "servantst' not "gang laborers.'- In any ease, al1 of this provided Sarnuel Clemens with ample material for his stories. Today, Hannibal is easily reached by automobile by following highway 61 northwest from St. Louis for about 160 kilometers. To get a better understanding of the places mentioned in Twain's books, my wife and I visited Hannibal in the summer of 1983 on our way back to Iowa from St. Louis. It is one of Missouri's most notable tourist attraetions, but we did not find it overly commereialized. Even though it is not a big town, there is a state operated tourist information eenter located on Highway 61 just before you enter Hannibal. This is espeeially helpful for travelers who have just a few hours to spend, as we did, and want to see the main points of interest, but if you have a day or more it might be fun to just "discover" the town, Certainly, you will find the fast-food ehains and some souvenir shops, but there are also craft and antique shops, whieh, even though they are businesses, reflect the past and present culture of the eommunity . Hannibal, aeeording to the Hannibal Visitors' Guide, in order to "perpetuate the memory of Mark Twain," has created -83- an "historic distTict" near the eenter of the town. Several of the buildings mentioned in the "Hannibal books," espeeial2y in Tom Sawyer are loeated in oy have been moved to this distriet, and mope restoration is planned. 1. Sa;nueg clerneltsg Beyheoct heme (right) and Mark Twain Museum. ?erhaps the primary attwaetion in the distwiet is Samuel Clemenst beykood heme (pieture 1). In ehapter 9 of his Autobiography, he refers to it this way: T'In 1849, when I was fourteen years eld, we were Iiving in ffannibal, en the banks ef the Mississippi, in the new 'fyame' home built by my father five years before. That is, some of us lived in the new part, the rest in the o]d part back of it and attaehed to it.t,5 Though sirnpie in design, the frame house with clapboapd siding was a relatively new style in the midwest in CSemenst - 84 - time. Log eabins were perhaps the most coinmon form of housing up to that tirne in that area. When he wrote Tom Sawyen, Twain eertainly used this house as the rnode] for the one that Tom and Aunt Polly lived in as he wnites: T'Tom pyesented himself before Aunt Polly, who was sitting by an open window in a pleasant rear- ward apartment whieh was a bed-room, breakÅíast- room, d!ning-roorn and libyary eombined.'t6 And alsQ when he refers to i]orn's brothey, Sid: 't(Tom) saw Sid just starting up the outside stairway that Ied to the baek yoom$ on the second floor.v 7 One of the "baek rooms" was Tom and Sid's bedroorn in the story, and it eorresponds to the Iocation of the Clemens boys' bedroom in the actual house. In one episode, as Sid went up the staiys, Tom threw pieees of dirt from the garden at him to get revenge because Sid had reported Tom's foybidden swimming to Aunt Polly. He then made his eseape with a eombination of climbing and leaping over the fenee next to the house. 2. Tom Sawyer's Fence - 85 This fenee (pietuye 2) is the seene of one ef the most farnous episoctes in Tom Sawyev and perhaps all of Twain's writing. This was the fenee that Tem persuaded many oÅí his friends to help whitewash for a "fee," and "If he hadR't run out of whitewask he would have bankrupted every boy in the vi11age.trg The inside ef the hoaxse has been eeEnpletely restered to look the same as it might have when the Clemens family lived theye and as it is deseribed in Twain's stories. The stone block building next to the Clemens' home has been eenverted into a Mark Twain Museum which has such artifscts as fiyst edStions ef Twain's beeks, eopies of hSs wotks in feyeign Zanguages, and gne of hi$ fameus white suits. Othey iteTfls whieh show the history of Hannibal are also inciuded in the eolleetion. I espeeially enjoyed seeing the pilot's whee] from a stearnboat similar to the one piloted by Twain ayid the original paintings by Norman Roekwell whieh were used as Mustrations few special editiDns of Tom Sawyey and ffuckZebeywy Finn. 3. Laurft ffavvkins' (Becky "S"hatcher's) hott$e. -86- Across the street from the Clernen's house is a mueh bigger frame house whieh was the horne of Lauya Hawkins (pietuye 3). The lower fioor of the Xawkins' hottse serves as a book, film, and souvenir stoye, but tlte parlor and bedyoorn en the upper drlooy have been restored. AecordSng to the Hannibal Visitors' Guide, Laura was SarR's ehildhood sweetheart, and he immortalized heT as Teifn Sawyer's giylfyiend, Beeky Thatehev. "As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thateher }ived, he saw a new girl 2n the garden--a ievely little blue-eyed ereature with yel}ow hair plaited iRto two leltg tails, white surr]rner froek, and embreidered pantalettes."9 Hoping te gain the atteRtioxx of his "adored," Tom stood under the seeond story window of Beeky's room and waited for her to spot hirn, and sure enough, a short while ]atesc "The window went up; a rnaid-servant's diseordant voiee profaned the holy ealm, and a deluge of water drenehed the prone martyr's remains!"iO This was net exactly the person or reeeptien Tom had expeeted or hoped for. wh 1•J '• ag. ceewtiff ffigs -87- A few blocks walk away from the Twain house is a statute depicting Tom Sawyer and Huekleberry Finn as they might have 1ooked.
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