Jamie now onto our speaker today. A former Senate Speech writer Alan Pell Crawford has reviewed books on u. S. History, politics and culture for the wall street journal since 1993. Alan has been a resident scholar at George Washingtons mount vernon. My previous employment, the International Center for jefferson studies at monticello and the boston and the name. He is the author of several books, including unwise passion, true story of a remarkable woman and the first great scandal of 18th century america. Twilight at monticello, and most recently, what we are all here today to learn about his wonderful, entertaining new book how not to get rich the financial misadventures of mark twain. Please join me in welcoming alan crawford. [applause] alan thank you, jamie. We are all familiar with the story of how mark twains death was greatly exaggerated. [laughter] alan there were two times in which this took place. The first one, the one we are all familiar with, was in 1897 in london. The second one, the one he will hear about the first time today, it occurred in 1907, three years before mark twains death. This was during twains last visit to the old dominion. He had come here for the jamestown exposition. The jamestown exposition was a kind of worlds fair celebrating the 300th anniversary of the First PermanentEnglish Settlement in the new world. At this exposition were steam engines, new forms of motorized engines, automobiles. Mark twain was crazy about these kinds of technological advancements. He was also crazy about the inventors who made them possible and the investors and venture capitalists who brought them to market. He was also something of a speculator himself. As you read how not to get rich, which i recommend highly, and i do not mean check it out at the richmond public library. He was crazy about this stuff. Always looking to the future, always thinking there was the next big thing. One person in particular copper baronparticular, a robber at the time was a man named Henry Huddleston rogers. Rogers he got to know as the Standard Oil Vice president who founded the Richmond Railway company excuse me, the Virginia Railway company. Rogers and twain became very Close Friends. He was a guest of rogers on his yacht that twain came to jamestown in 1907. Somehow, the word got out that mark twain was coming. People were excited about this. When it pulled into the bay, the crowd formed on the docks. They began to shout for mark twain to come out and greet them, which he did. He came out of the boat in his white suit and doffed his hat, and the crowd went crazy. Reporters followed him everywhere around jamestown. When it came time to leave, rogers decided he would go back by rail, and twain would get on the yacht and sail up. Unfortunately, there was a thick fog on the bay. Twain was marooned for several days, if you can use the word marooned while on a boat, and servants rushed about, cracking ice and talking the tender leaves of the fragrant herbs in preparation of a famous concoction guaranteed to dispel sorrow and lighten hearts that are heavy. As good virginians, you know this is the mint julep. Eventually, the fog lifts. The boat sails. Twain wakes up safe and sound in new york. The new york newspapers do not seem to have understood this. It was reported by the New York Times that the boat had been lost at sea and mark twain had drowned. Apparently, there was a rumor that started in the hampton newspaper. I believe it was the ledger dispatch was the name of the paper. Someone here will correct me. It was reported by the New York Times, which i think proves that small provincial newspapers can be just as incompetent and as greatible metropolitan papers like the New York Times. Twains response was characteristic. When he learned this news, he issued a statement to the press as follows. He plans to conduct an exhaustive investigation of this report, that i have been lost at sea. If there is any foundation for this report, i will at once public. The what had happened was a kind of prank. Rogers had alerted officials back in virginia that his boat had been lost at sea and sent out a call for a search party to find it. I do not know anything about the statute of limitations. Not a lawyer. Im thinking maybe the commonwealth could sue standard oil for the expenses of this search party, plus interest. I understand standard oil operates today as bp. In that case, their lawyers have a lot of experience at defending against such claims. I offer that gratis. A lot of experience at defendinr subject of mark twains relationship to the old dominion and whether he was a member of the first families of virginia. By his background, mark twain was born in florida, missouri, not hannibal, in 1835. His father was a man named John Marshall clemens. John marshall clemens had been born in campbell county, virginia. When mark twains daughter suzy was 13, she wrote a biography of her father which was published a number of years later called papa. A charming book. As ald not recommend it scholarly work. I do not think suzy spent time in the archives. There are no footnotes or bibliography. It is a book of oral history. In it, she says that her maternal her paternal grandfather was a member of the ffv of virginny. Mark twain alluded to this in one of the autobiographies that he wrote, this which was one published after his death. John marshall clemens, he wrote, who was a failed innkeeper, a terrible businessman left the family nothing in terms of money, but a sumptuous stock of pride and a good old name. A good old name mark twain immediately changed for commercial purposes. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is interesting because twain said he was named for an old and dear friend of his fathers. Who exactly that is, we are not sure. The name that comes to mind, this is the one i always had difficulty pronouncing. Dabny lang more and a house in albemarle. This was the founder of the cno railroad and the father of lady nancy astor. I think that is probably not a good candidate because langhorne would have been four years old when mark twains father died. Further research is indicated. Mark twains mothers name was jane lampton. We do not know a lot about her ancestry, but it seems to be kentucky and tennessee. Her oral history of her family also includes claims to an illustrious lineage. She had an eccentric nephew who decided did this research and decided he was the rightful fourth earl of durham in england. He expected people to address him as such. Twains attitude towards ancestral pride is typically forbearing and comical. Wonderful passages in all of American Literature is in innocence abroad, his first big hit that tells of his travels to europe and the holy land on a cruise ship with a number of other prominent american socialites, who were on one of the first such Pleasure Cruise ships. On that trip in the holy land, the tour guide tells twain that they are standing at the grave of adam. [laughter] alan that adam. Twain says, how touching it was here in the land of strangers, far away from home and friends, and all who cared for me. Thus to discover the grave of a blood relation. [laughter] alan true, it was a distant one, but still a relation. The foundation of my filial affection was stirred to its profoundest depths. I gave way to tumultuous emotion. I leaned against a pillar and burst into tears. I deem it note shame to have wept over the grave of my poor dead relative. Now, there is a wonderful little book. It should be here at the Historical Society bookstore. It is called the virginia gentleman, a field guide and Owners Manual and way of life. It is written by a lawyer in arlington named richard crouch, who describes himself as an undistinguished amateur of no great achievement. A lifelong virginian with a respectable rural background. An attorney with military experience, a worried rural landowner, and a lover of hunting and historic preservation. Which i think positions him very well to write this book. Some of what he says, describing the characteristics of a virginia gentleman are not only relevant but well expressed. He says the primary distinguishing feature of the virginia gentleman is his modesty. This is not generally known. [laughter] alan in fact, it seems that many people consider the same gentleman to be distinguishable by his pride and wonder just what it is in modern times that he has to be so proud of. It is the virginia gentlemans chief concern to be modest. What is truly unfortunate is so many people do not realize that is modesty is what he is so insufferably pompous about. Mark twain was not modest. He was a relentless self promoter. I think he would have had to search hard to find a basket big enough to hide his bushel under. Still, he exhibits some characteristics of the virginia gentleman that i will go into now, and we can all evaluate whether or not the claim is a credible one. Mark twain had immense social assurance. He was a man of social ease that is truly remarkable. He could get along very well, very amiably. Deep felt affection for the academic and popular at his africanamerican butler at his mansion. He took a trip back to hannibal in late midlife and reconnected with his boyhood chums. He endeared himself to the most ruthless robber barons of the gilded age. He got along famously with a literary lions and on his travels with english lords and princes. Most of us, we are trying to endear ourselves to important people using flattery. Mark twain did not do this. He did no such thing. He approached people with a true sense of a smalld democrat. That meant he could speak everyone directly and as a friend. For people to whom others use flattery, this was disarming they found it immensely charming and respected him for it. I think it is fascinating to have that kind of ease socially. It is something i have found among those who are genuine members of the virginia aristocracy. Second, mark twain spoke his mind. This used to be a defining characteristic of virginia gentlemen, if you go back to the days of Thomas Jefferson. Some of these figures. Im not so sure it is any more, but there is a sense that with ones social position, there came a civic duty to be forthright, speak your mind. Not to cause offense unnecessarily, but to be willing to cause some division if you thought the cause was right. Mark twain was like this. Most of his works, the ones that endure and that we still love are very amiable books, where he is the butt of his own jokes. At the same time, any of his writings are very caustic. It is impossible to find a real coherent political philosophy behind them, but he could be very outspoken. I think he felt a duty to be so. This suggests a tremendous assurance about mark twains station in society. That is the kind of thing to take an exaggerated example, winston churchill, this takes generations to develop, this sense of security in ones position in society. Twain exhibited that. I think it supports the idea that he had some kind of aristocratic ancestry. Third, this might be my favorite, mark twain liked money. The true virginia aristocratic types that i have known, they see no advantage in foregoing the pleasures of life. They like to live well, and it can take money to live well. Mark twain lived very well. He liked the champagne, he went to the finest restaurants, stayed in worldclass hotels, and built a preposterously large mansion in hartford, connecticut. Mark twain also thought that he was a terrific businessman. How good a businessman he was, you will have to read how not to get rich. Make that assessment for yourself. I think, in a sense, his claims to be part of the virginia aristocracy, at least as passed down from his daughter and paternal father i guess all fathers are paternal. [laughter] alan is a tentative yes. With this caveat, a lot of these characteristics exist throughout virginia. Why not since so many of us are cousins anyway, however many times removed . There is one major exception to mark twains extravagance. He loved cigars. He smoked day and night, as he put it, without allowing intervals. He said any cigar that cost more than five cents was obviously of foreign derivation and therefore unsmokable. He liked to say that he smoked in moderation. I only smoke one cigar at a time. I enjoy questions from the crowd. I would offer you one last little anecdote here and then open up to questions. I hope we can have a lively discussion. On one of twains visits to richmond, virginia, he came down with a terrible headache. A local resident that was with him said, it cannot be the food in richmond, the food in richmond is terrific. He said, there is no healthier city than richmond, virginia. Our death rate is down to one person a day. Twain was unimpressed. He said, run down to the Newspaper Office and find out if todays victim has died yet. [laughter] alan you have been great. Thank you. I would love to take questions. [applause] [inaudible] alan he had mixed feelings about the telephone. For all of his terrible investments, he had a chance to make a lot of money. He was offered unlimited amounts of stock in the Bell Telephone company. He said no thank you, i do not need it. He had one of the first telephones installed in a private home, he said in the world, maybe america. It is one of those claims that is hard to prove or disprove. He used it connected to the local Newspaper Office, but also found it was nice to connect with your doctor if you had a medical emergency. His family was afflicted with all kinds of problems. At the same time, he said it was a terrible nuisance, and it just allowed people to annoy each other. Like a lot of things, mark twain said so much stuff that it is possible to get a very nuanced reading there. He used the telephone, but he just did not have the good sense to invest in the telephone. What led you to choose mark twain . What brought you to him . Alan i think that the stories that mark twain tells about sense,od r, in a everybodys childhood. Certainly, everybodys boyhood. I was totally wrapped up in mark twain books as a child. I lived on a small farm, where we had a pond. I was determined to build a raft. Float down the mississippi. I would gather random pieces of lumber from around the barn and nail them all together, strapped them together, and take them down to the pond and try to make them float. Apparently, one time, my father looked out the window and saw me at the pond with one of my rafts. He said look, alan is throwing another load of lumber into the pond. [laughter] alan i have loved mark twain my entire life. I love his voice. One of the sad things about finishing how not to get rich, i miss his companionship. He is the worlds greatest company. In recent years, i picked up a copy of the First Edition of the autobiography in 1927. Borne away once again by his companionship. This man is fascinating. I began to read the standard biographies of mark twain. I thought what is really remarkable here is the business misadventures are funnier than the other aspects of his life and the things that he wrote, es reflectingen he is on these experiences with a certain detachment and rueful amusement. You have outlandish stories of investments and inventions that he tried to bankroll. The calamities that resulted financially from them. You have his comic reflections on the experience and what it meant and how he responded to it. I thought nobody has really ever done anything with this material. Its one of those untold stories, and you cant believe somebody else hasnt done this already. The desire to tell a story about him that has not really been told. True that mark twain redeemed himself late in life when facing absolute poverty and bankruptcy, he gathered his and went on ar multiyear worldwide speaking tour, not only being able to repay all of his debts but to raise his stature among the Business Community as someone who was willing to work very hard at an older age to repay his debts . Alan yes and no. That is a very good summation of what happened, but i want to add to it. When he was 59, he had invested in two major projects. One was the webster Publishing Company, a startup that he himself ran and started. He installed a nephew as the business manager. The first book they published was the worlds greatest publishing success to date, certainly in this country. That was the memoirs of general grant. I think general grants widow made 400,000 off it and twiaain twain himself made 200,000. Then they published a bunch of disasters. Think, about 4 million in todays currency on that project. In ather one invested congregated machine for setting newspaper type. He figured out it would be worth billions of dollars and become the world standard. He knew how many newspapers were published in new york, how many pages were published and how fast it would be to set the type using this machine. He said the fact that it is better than the people who work setting type for newspapers a union,t doesnt join and it doesnt get drunk. [laughter] alan unfortunately, it took so long to bring this thing to market that another competitor became the Industry Standard and twain lost another 4 million on that. When he is about 59 years old, he is facing bankruptcy. To say poverty is the way he would describe it, but i dont think that is the way most people in his time would have described it. He still lived well. His idea of poverty was traveling throughout europe and live in nice hotels, where it he would be celebrated, where he would be known throughout europe and the englishspeaking part of the world. Yes, he had tremendous financial reversals and was bleeding family did ok. He was worth 11 million. His last daughter died in died e 1960s living in california, and i think she was worth about 6 million at this time because the books sell and sell. One way that rogers arranged the payment of twains debts was to have the Publishing Company declare bankruptcy, but before he did that, he transferred twains assets in the books to his wife, which some have said is fraudulent, im not a lawyer, i dont know. At one point he said he finally got into the swing, talking about his wifes books. If he was in a meeting, he would say, im not sure where mrs. Clemens has decided to publish her next book. She is still negotiating that. He did crawl back to a comfortable life and lived well to the end of his life. He still couldnt stop investing, though. He got very excited about something called plasman. While they were in vienna, i believe, he found out about this new health food supplement that he said was derived from some waste product of feed to hogs. Think over 1 , million in this. He started the the american plasman Company Installed himself as president and ceo and it went bankrupt. He had another great idea, and rogers wrote him a note and said do be careful. He said it is easier to stay out of trouble than to get into it then to get out of it as you know from past experience. He did say that when he was 62, he said if none of this works out, i will be 64, and i will just have to start over. [laughter] alan yes, sir. [inaudible] alan yes, he was come if you can call it that. He was enlisted in the marion rangers, that was a volunteer Militia Group which was basically his boyhood friends. They thought what fun, we will go out and play soldier for a while. He wrote about that experience in a short these called the private history of a campaign that failed. He said that they really didnt do much soldiering. Camped outid was whenever the enemy came near and they were not even sure who the enemy was. They were to defend the county or town, that they were not sure what side they were on. It was kind of a ridiculous effort that he had a lot of fun writing about. When the civil war broke out, he did what a lot of smart people did, he went out west. What had happened was, after he had became a riverboat pilot, and when the war came and the trade on the mississippi stopped and he went with his brother to nevada, and his brother had been made secretary to the governor of the territories or something. So twain used that time to prospect for silver and gold and ended up, kind of by accident, as a newspaper writer. As for his attitudes to the military, it is better to look attitudes toward war. When he moved to connecticut, he married the daughter of a coal baron. He became the least southern southerner he had ever met. Ized. Ally yankee of generaln admirer grant. When he met general grant the second time and his friend that was going to introduce them said he wasnt sure that grant would remember him, and he said he will remember me because the last time i was the only person in line who did not ask him for a job. [laughter] alan late in life, twain wrote war prayer which is an antiwar document. I think he always respected soldiers and respected officers and had tremendous affection for grant but had mixed feelings about the business of war. Why did he choose the pen name mark twain . Alan you know, scholars will be arguing about that forever. Apparently it is a term of measuring the depth on the passage of a riverboat. But it has turned out in recent years that there was someone else in new orleans, louisiana, who wrote short items about the riverboat trade who used the name mark twain. So he did not invent that. He purloined it, i think, is a fair way to put it. He borrowed it. I think it was a tribute to his days on the river which he always held with great respect. Was tom sawyer the first novel written on a typewriter, or is that apocryphal . The other question is, what was twains daily writing ritual . Alan he claimed that huck finn was the first written on a typewriter. I dont believe that there is a manuscript copy. If that is true, i dont think there is a manuscript copy that exists. Im not a scholar. A scholar has to know everything. I have given a lot of talks about Thomas Jefferson, and i always know that two or three people, even if there are 10 in the vast hordes who show up to hear me, there will be two who have taught jefferson for 40 years and will assassinate me. [laughter] alan i dont think that there is a manuscript. I know twain did own an early typewriter and played around with it, but i think it is probably apocryphal that he probably apocryphal that he wrote an entire novel on it. He tried dictating at one point and did not like that. The other question i dont understand this at all, his daily writing routine, he was enormously prolific, and he had tremendous amounts of energy. Just unbelievable. We think you could he thought he could write Huckleberry Finn in three months. It took him six years, not because he wasnt writing regularly, but because he was so involved in some of these business projects. He would tell the people running the Publishing Company, stop worrying about Huckleberry Finn. I am inventing the baby bed clamp to keep infants from kicking the clothes off the bed. It took him six years to write that. It is very difficult to figure out how he did what he did. He wrote immense amounts of stuff. He was socializing every night. He would play billiards for hours on end with his friends. If i knew the secret, may be he was eating plasman. [laughter] alan i wish that i knew. It is like lincoln said of grant, find out what he is drinking and send it to my other generals. If i knew how twain did what he did, i would do it. Golf a goodled walk spoiled. Alan i think that is what most endeared him to me. The question was why did he say that golf was a good walk spoiled . Twain was a tremendous walker. If you read the book a tramp abroad, he would walk miles and miles with a friend and just talk. Go from city to city in europe, in germany where they traveled, he and joe twichel, who was one of his closest friends. He was the rector of the Congregational Church in hartford. They became Close Friends and traveled in europe together. At one point, they are walking somewhere and some College Students pick them up. The College Students give them giveton journal, them a ride to the next town, and they are thrilled to meet mark twain. As much as he enjoyed walking, i think golf took too much concentration, and he couldnt carry on a monologue the way he usually enjoyed. [laughter] alan yes. Is there any evidence that at some point in his life that he suffered from severe depression . Alan you know, in researching jefferson, there were lots of claims that jefferson had aspergers syndrome, and i think there is very little evidence for that. I also think there is very little evidence that twain had depression because he was so productive and so social. It might be like trying to diagnose the president. [laughter] alan it is hard to know what goes on in somebodys own mind. I think if he had depression, there would have been periods where he was not particularly productive. That is a guess he has periods of immense euphoria. These things seem to be within hours. He would be very excited about some prospect and then finds out we lost 5 million. He is desponding. His wife talks to him, he paces, he smokes cigars, he has a friend over, and the next day he is excited about the next thing. There is a resilience in his personality that does not suggest depression to me, but there are certainly mood swings. Maybe that is a better way. The man is always suffering from mood swings. Nephew who he put in charge of the Publishing Company who said hes a devil to do business with, but you cant help loving him. That is the kind of personality he was. He could be very difficult. He learned once, and i cant remember how he learned it, i think he wrote to howells and said i have just learned that my daughters are scared of me. It tormented him. He was such an affectionate family man and adored his daughters. The idea that they were intimidated by his outbursts sometimes wounded him deeply. He is a very complicated man. If i understood why he did what he did, i would write a book about that and retire. [laughter] are there any twain descendents currently, and where do the royalties go today . Alan i wish you would have not asked that. I dont think there are direct descendents. He had the daughter who died in the 1960s in california. She had no children. As far as where the royalties go today, i dont know. Honestly, i will find out and get back to you. [laughter] alan they go somewhere because there is a lot of money there. Twains father i believe died when twain was 11 years old. The familys fortunes collapsed. His mother took in boarders. He went on the road as a printer and later as a pilot on the mississippi. What i have read is when he received a degree in oxford late in life they commented on the fact that he was a self learner, that he became a writer through the force of his own intellect. Could you comment on his development as a writer and intellectual . Alan i think that his education and did very early, his formal education, but for a person he is not a systematic thinker. He is just a grab bag of ideas and things that he doesnt pursue with the rigor of a henry james or william james. Doing and learns by reading. He was not an intellectual in any sense. Although, people think of Thomas Jefferson as the great great francophile. Thomas jefferson never learned french. He lived in france and never learned french. Twain lived in germany and taught himself german. He was a tremendous intellect. His mother was a lively woman. Twain was always a reader. He said when he worked in a bookstore in hannibal, missouri, as a young boy, he said that the customers were always getting in his way and never allowing them to read in peace. He also worked in the drugstore and said his prescriptions were not good, and they ended up selling more stomach pumps than soda water. [laughter] alan he read widely and not systematically, which is part of the charm. How did he get along with Harriet Beecher so and other folks stowe and other folks at nook farm that he lived with . Alan they seemed to accept him. There was a question about whether or not he had gentility in his background. For such a rough character out of the mining camps in the west, he adjusted well to high society. Nook farm was a community in hartford, connecticut, settled by they tended to be very well educated and were socially progressive people, Harriet Beecher stowe was a neighbor. He seems to have got on fine with these people, and there was not even a lot of evidence of his wife who was genteel and educated, of her schooling him and how to behave, which fork to use and all of that. I dont get any evidence that there was much of that. He had a quality about him to absorb all of that and get by and to be accepted at all levels of society. He seems to have gotten on fine with Harriet Beecher stowe, the author of uncle toms cabin. He did say in later years that she became very eccentric and would enter other peoples houses. She would let out a yell behind them and scare them. [laughter] alan it was a community where for its time people seemed to have had a level of neighborly informality that was rare for its time. Probably we would think they were very stuffy. He got along fine there. , he could thank you very much. [applause] Douglas Wilder was the first africanamerican elected as governor in u. S. History serving virginia from 1990 to 1994. Next on lectures in history, mr. Wilder is a guest speaker at a Virginia Commonwealth University class. He reflects on five decades of involvement in