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March 2, 2005
Mark Twain in Bermuda
I've been looking for something to post about Mark Twain and just such a thing arrived in my email from the Mark Twain Forum. Most people know that Mark Twain spent a good deal of his adult life in Europe but fewer know that he loved to vacation on the island of Bermuda. Late in life, he spent as much time as he could there.
Keith Archibald Forbes has written an interesting article on Mark Twain in Bermuda for Bermuda Online . Here are some excerpts:
His first Bermuda visit was as a passenger on the SS Quaker City, 1,800 tons, powered by steam and sails. She left New York City on June 8, 1867 for the Mediterranean, Black Sea and Holy Land. Her first call was at Horta in the Azores on June 21-23, then Gibraltar and points east. She arrived back in New York on November 19, via Bermuda. During the voyage, he penned The Innocents Abroad.
During his first visit, Twain viewed the enormous rubber tree (still there) in the grounds of Par-la-Ville Park, in front of where the Bermuda Historical Society now stands. It had been the town house of Postmaster William B. Perot, who laid out the gardens in the mid 1800s. Mark Twain pretended to be disappointed with the rubber tree that can still be seen on the right of the photograph shown to the right.He complained - with a twinkle in his eye - that it did not bear a crop of hot water bottles and rubber overshoes!...
One of the more interesting items discussed is the 80 page manuscript entitled "Our Friend Mark Twain" by Mrs. Marion Schuyler Allan. As far as I know this manuscript has not be published in recent times. It has been studied by Gretchen Sharlow and the late Hamlin Hill.
The piece is clearly intended to promote tourism, but the information is good and the author can not refrain from what is perhaps Twain's most famous one liner about Bermuda:
Bermuda was a paradise but one had to go through hell to get there.
There is another article on Twain in Bermuda on line that is also worth reading. It covers much of the same ground as the Forbes article.
Posted by Duane Smith at March 2, 2005 10:46 AM | Read more on Mark Twain |
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