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Clemens, Samuel Langhorne

From Encyclopedia of American Studies
There are few writers in American literary history who have become cultural icons. Yet Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, and later known as Mark Twain (a nom de plume taken from his riverboat piloting days meaning two fathoms deep, or safe water), has clearly staked a place for himself in the larger American collective conscience, leaving a legacy not only as a fountainhead of American literature itself but also as a resilient and persistent figure in American popular culture. Ernest Hemingway famously remarked that all American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. William Faulkner echoed Hemingway's canonizing praise, acclaiming Twain the father of American literature. At the same time, Twain's image, humorous quips, and aphorisms have been a constant of the popular media. His novels and stories have been remade into comic strips, children's films, and cartoons; his image and his words regularly figure in…
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Full text Article Twain, Mark

From Philip's Encyclopedia
| 88 words
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Full text Article Mark Twain (1835–1910)

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Are you going to hang him anyhow – and try him afterward? Innocents at Home A classic – something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read. Quoting Professor Caleb Winchester in a speech at the Nineteenth Century Club, New York City, 20 November 1900 The cross of the Legion of…
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Full text Article INDECISION

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
[Of Sir Stafford Cripps] He has a brilliant mind until he makes it up. In The Wit of the Asquiths . We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over. BEVAN, Aneurin The Observer , 1953. How long halt ye between two opinions? THE BIBLE ; I Kings, ... …
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Full text Article EDITING

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
[Remark to writers who had heavily edited one of his scripts] Where were you fellows when the paper was blank? [Attr.] He [Shakespeare] was wont to say that he ‘never blotted out a line of his life’; said Ben Jonson,‘I wish he had blotted out a thousand.’ AUBREY, John Brief Lives (c. 1693). Trust…
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Full text Article FOREIGNERS

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
I don’t hold with abroad and think that foreigners speak English when our backs are turned. CRISP, Quentin The Naked Civil Servant (1968). Is not the Turk a man and a brother? ERASMUS Querela Pacis . For anything I see, for... …
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Full text Article REALISM

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do. BACON, Francis The Advancement of Learning (1605). Reality is what I see, not what you see. BURGESS, Anthony The Sunday Times Magazine , 1983. …
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Full text Article Mark Twain (1835-1910) (litho)

From Bridgeman Images: Ken Welsh History Collection
Mark Twain (1835-1910) (litho)
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Full text Article MANNERS

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth. BRADBURY, Malcolm Stepping Westward (1965). Manners are of more importance than laws... Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, …
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Full text Article THE WEATHER

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
What dreadful hot weather we have! It keeps me in a continual state of inelegance. [Letter, 1796] He who doesn’t notice whether it is winter or summer is happy. I think that if I were in Moscow, I wouldn’t notice what the weather was like. CHEKHOV, Anton The Three Sisters (1901). Snowy, Flowy, …
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Full text Article SMOKING

From Collins Dictionary of Quotations
How they who use fuseesAll grow by slow degreesBrainless as chimpanzees,Meagre as lizards:Go mad, and beat their wives;Plunge (after shocking lives)Razors and carving knivesInto their gizzards. CALVERLEY, C. S. ‘ Ode to Tobacco ’ (1861). [To Sir Walter Raleigh] I have known many persons who turned…
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