Mark Twain: Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter (review)

For years the debate over how much of Mark Twain was Samuel Clemens and how much of Clemens was Mark Twain has generated oceans of scholarly ink. James Caron's new book shifts this debate to a new level, one that ultimately will generate much more productive scholarship in years to come. Caron views the Mark Twain persona as a performance mode, and from this stance, analyzes the early influences and experiences that contribute to the creation of this most famous pseudonym. In keeping with the discussion of "Mark Twain" as a dramatic narrative performance, the text is divided into acts and scenes rather than the usual chapters.

The prologue and first act trace the influence of the Southwestern humorists on the young Clemens as he begins his career as a newspaper reporter. Those familiar with Walter Blair's early texts will get a few surprises here, as Caron carefully makes the case for a Gentleman Roarer and reinterprets early humorists like William Tappan Thompson and George Washington Harris and their influence on the "Mark Twain" narrative persona. He proposes that the Gentleman Roarer interpretation as opposed to the Backwoods Roarer "insists that the common man, though rustic, was not maliciously rude; though simple and unpretentious, was not simple-minded; and though undereducated and practically unlettered, was nevertheless possessed of common sense and mother wit." He establishes the lineage of the comic tradition that Clemens inherits, acknowledging his debts to earlier scholars Constance Rourke, Blair, and David Sloane. Act two (Washoe Mark Twain) traces Clemens' life on the Comstock writing for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise and his submissions and reprints in San Francisco and Eastern papers during those years, carefully tracing the influences of William Wright (Dan DeQuille) and "Washoe" reporting as these influences contribute to the development of "Mark Twain" long before the byline appears in print. Act three (Mark Twain in San Francisco) moves with Clemens to San Francisco, where Caron discusses the more subtle satire the persona acquires through the Bohemian and flaneurs influences of Charles Webb and Bret Harte, which contribute to more comic possibilities for the Twain narrator. Act four (Correspondent on Assignment) deals with Clemens' time in the Sandwich Islands, the creation of Mr. Brown, and the ways in which a more sophisticated Clemens expands the performance possibilities of "Mark Twain." Act five (Correspondent at Large) delineates the ways in which Clemens uses the narrative persona of "Mark Twain"—by this time quite versatile in its creative possibilities—into a lecture persona.

What this book offers us as scholars is nothing less than a new and more complicated way to look at "Mark Twain"—as a pseudonym, a narrative character, and an actor. Through careful and detailed scholarship, Caron demonstrates the consciously constructed nature of the persona as Clemens became more experienced in determining various audiences, their expectations, and the ways in which he could appeal to them through dramatic performance. The text also includes a detailed account of Clemens' early work out West, challenging and marvelously complicating a segment of the author's life that has been ignored for some time in favor of the later years. It contains an excellent index and a detailed works cited section for those interested in further reading. After reading Caron's book, it will be much more difficult for scholars to interchange the pseudonym "Mark Twain" with the name Samuel Clemens—the two have come to mean very different things through the course of this book.