Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans your Mnemonic Man and today's episode will be on the insanely, adventurous, innovative, and probably America’s most celebrated author, Mark Twain.

Adventurous because he visited a myriad of countries all around the world in a time where travel was both difficult and time consuming. Just to name a few of the countries he visited, some included England, Italy, Hawaii, Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Sweden, and Canada along with many more.

He was also an inventor and innovator and was heavily invested in a plethora of projects and ideas, along with his own patents.

But of course, what he is most well-known for, is his influence on literature and culture.

His books captured the common man with his style of sharp wit, humour and thought-provoking social commentary. But it would be remiss of me, if I didn’t mention the number of quotes under his name. The volume is unbelievable. So, I will just go through my top seven:

1. "Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."

2. “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Kentucky.

They're always 20 years behind everything.”

3. “Travel is fatal to prejudice”

4. “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.”

5. “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt.”

6. “Giving up smoking is the easiest thing in the world. I know because I've done it thousands of times.”

7. And; the classic "God created War so that Americans would learn Geography"

Today’s mnemonic will be on Mark Twain’s top five books.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Twain_by_AF_Bradley.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced,"[2] with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature."[3] His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884),[4] with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer early in his career, and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to his older brother Orion Clemens' newspaper. Twain then became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River, which provided him the material for Life on the Mississippi (1883). Soon after, Twain headed west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.[5]

He first achieved success as a writer with the humorous story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which was published in 1865; it was based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time while he was working as a miner. The short story brought him international attention.[6] He wrote both fiction and non-fiction. As his fame grew, he became a much sought-after speaker. His wit and satire, both in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Although Twain initially spoke out in favor of American interests in the Hawaiian Islands, he later reversed his position,[7] going on to become vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death in 1910, coming out strongly against the Philippine-American War and colonialism.[8][9][10]

Twain earned a great deal of money from his writing and lectures, but invested in ventures that lost most of it, such as the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but in time overcame his financial troubles with the help of Standard Oil executive Henry Huttleston Rogers. Twain eventually paid all his creditors in full, even though his declaration of bankruptcy meant he was not required to do so. He was born shortly after an appearance of Halley's Comet, and predicted that his death would accompany it as well, dying a day after the comet was at its closest to Earth.[11]

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Helen_Keller_with_Mark_Twain._Wellcome_M0018417.jpg

Mnemonic

Mark Twain – Top 5 Books Mnemonic – TARTA

(Picture Mark Twain smoking his 22 cigars a day and developing a special type of cigar tartar on his teeth as a result)

1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

3. Roughing It

4. The Gilded Age

5. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Five Fun Facts

1. Mark Twain was lucky to make it to childhood. He was born two-months premature in Florida, Missouri in 1835. After being born premature he was frail and sick until he was seven years old. He was one of seven children of which only three survived to adulthood.

2. Further tragedy struck when Twain was working as an apprentice steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. He managed to get his 19-year-old brother Henry a job aboard the boat which was called the Pennsylvania. Sadly, a boiler exploded and the boat burned on the Mississippi killing 160 passengers and crew members along with Twain’s brother Henry.

3. Now to his pen name. He adopted the name in 1863 from his steam boating days. “Mark twain” was an expression used by crewman on steamboats which meant two fathoms or 12 feet, which was the ideal or safe depth of water for a steamboat.

4. Mark Twain and holding onto money did not go together. He made a lot but lost more. Some notable mentions are, on an engraving process, a magnetic telegraph, a steam pulley, the Freedonia Watch Company, railroad stocks, a typesetting machine, and a publishing company. Ironically, along the way he was offered a chance to invest in one of the greatest inventions in history, the telephone, but unfortunately turned down its creator Alexander Graham Bell.

5. Huckleberry Finn is based on a real person. This man was Tom Blankenship who grew up with Twain in Hannibal. He was known as the town drunk and was from a poor family. No-one knows definitively what happened to Tom later in life, but there are suggestions he became a justice of the peace in Montana, and other reports that he was jailed for theft and died of cholera.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mark_Twain,_New_Hampshire,_1905.JPG

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. What was the first book Mark Twain published? Options are The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country, Roughing It, or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Q.2. How many patents did Mark Twain have and for what were they for? Hint: Bra & book

Q.3. Mark Twain received an honorary degree from what university? Options are Yale University, Harvard University, or Oxford University

Bonus Q. What pen name did Samuel Clemens use other than "Mark Twain"? Options are Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, John Adams Ant, or George Washington First

Mnemonic Recap

Mark Twain – Top 5 Books Mnemonic – TARTA

(Picture Mark Twain smoking his 22 cigars a day and developing a special type of cigar tartar on his teeth as a result)

1. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

2. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

3. Roughing It

4. The Gilded Age

5. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Three Question Quiz Answers

Q.1. What was the first book Mark Twain published? Options are The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Country, Roughing It, or The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

A. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

Q.2. How many patents did Mark Twain have and for what were they for? Hint: Bra & book

A. Mark Twain had two patents. The first one was for “Improvements in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments” patent number 121,992. The other one was for a “Self-Pasting Scrapbook” patent number 140,245.

Q.3. Mark Twain received an honorary degree from what university? Options are Yale University, Harvard University, or Oxford University

A. Oxford University

Bonus Q. What pen name did Samuel Clemens use other than "Mark Twain"? Options are Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, John Adams Ant, or George Washington First

A. Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass

Word of the Week

chagrin

[ shuh-grin ]

noun

a feeling of vexation, marked by disappointment or humiliation.

Example

Much to Mark Twain’s chagrin he filed for bankruptcy, however to his credit he managed to eventually pay all his creditors in full.

Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]

Website:

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