Antoinette May Herndon 286-1320 toni@antoinettemay.com The Book Worm Mark Twain is Born Again By Antoinette May Herndon Do you ever dream of going to a magical place where life just comes together for you? Somehow or other the training wheels slip off your bicycle and suddenly you’re soaring! For the young Samuel Clemens, Calaveras County was just such a place. Beyond despondent, Clemens was suicidal when he arrived in Jackass Hill one cold, crisp December morning in 1864. He’d briefly enjoyed a stint as a riverboat pilot, had even adopted a river term for his pen name (Mark Twain was pilot’s code for “safe to navigate”) but the Civil War had brought the river trade to a standstill. Twain formed a Confederate militia that lasted two weeks. He wasn’t cut out to be a soldier or a printer or a miner or a lumberman and definitely not a newspaper editor. He tried them all and failed miserably. According to Jim Fletcher’s lively recounting, “Mark Twain’s 88 Days in the Mother Lode,” the poor man seemed unsuitable for anything.” Surely Twain was feeling very down and out when he wrote his brother, “You are in trouble, & in debt — so am I. If I do not get out of debt in 3 months — pistols or poison for one — exit me." Everybody experiences rejection. It hurts! But, believe me, only another writer knows how tough it is pour your heart out on a scrap of paper only to be met by one rejection after another. This was Mark Twain’s story for nearly 30 years and then a wonderful thing

happened. If he hadn’t wanted a drink that night, if he hadn’t gone to that bar, listened to that story . . . One wouldn’t expect that a move to a place named Jackass Hill would be fortuitous. The rambunctious Gold Rush town had been named for the pack train jackasses that rested there on their way to and from the mines. It’s said that as many as 200 animals performed in concert at Jackass Hill. With that’s kind of chorus it’s easy to imagine Twain seeking out a bar. And, like most writers, wannabe or otherwise, he took his notebook with him. Jotting quickly, he wrote: “Coleman with his jumping frog—bet stranger $50—meantime stranger had no frog & C got him one—in the meantime stranger filled C’s frog full of shot & he couldn’t jump—the stranger’s frog won.” That moment was Mark Twain’s date with destiny. The short paragraph, hardly more than a tweet, was the lucky strike that led to a writer’s Mother Lode. “Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog” was published Nov. 18, 1865 in the New York Saturday Press. Mark Twain went on to publish more than 30 books throughout his iconic career. He was only in town 88 days but Calaveras County has dined out on the connection ever since. Happily, that short span was seen as the major turning point in Twain’s life and career. The training wheels were finally off his bike. Five years later he would write “in the depth of poverty and pocket mining lay the germ of my coming fortune.” "There are several kinds of stories,” he expounded, “but only one difficult kind

— the humorous. The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter." An example of the humorous might be the Twainism: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” Twain’s newest chronicler, Angels Camp resident Jim Fletcher, is a colorful character himself. Genially exuberant, the retired middle-school teacher has taken on the title of “official storyteller of Calaveras County.” He leads tours of the North Grove of the Calaveras Big Trees Park and, as “Miner Jim,” conducts weekly programs at Camps Restaurant in Angels Camp. “Miner Jim” is snowy-haired and speaks in a high-pitched voice that exudes enthusiasm. His book was published by the newly minted Manzanita Press and he can’t say enough good things about his editor and publisher, Monika Rose. “She’s the best in the world.” Jim and Monika will celebrate their joint effort at a launch party Sunday, (Aug. 23) at 3 p.m. at Camps Restaurant in Angels Camp. Books will be available to buy and a film by John C. Brown, “Mark Twain Finds His Voice,” will be shown. Tickets are available at the Arts Council Gallery, the Visitors Center in Angels Camp, and Camps Restaurant. Proceeds will benefit the Manzanita Writers Press. Caption Jim Fletcher will sign copies of his Mark Twain bio Sunday at Camps Restaurant in Angels Camp