Twain in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates

“Mark Twain, Some Personal Reminiscences” (1938)

[283] === “Mark Twain, Some Personal Reminiscences” (1938) Sir George Ian MacAlister In one of the highlights of his life, Twain received an honorary Litt.D. from Oxford on 26 June 1907. Sir George Ian MacAlister (1878–1957) advised him about the ceremonial protocol. the university of oxford wrote to him and offered him an Honorary Degree , and he was tickled to death. He was more pleased and proud of that than of anything of the kind that had ever happened to him, particularly because no American University had ever thought of it.1 . . . American Universities did not think of him as a possible holder of a Degree. He was not in that class. But Oxford, the oldest and finest University in the world, had offered him its greatest honor, and he came with joy to receive it. He asked me to see him at his hotel. He was stopping at Brown’s Hotel. I went to see him in the afternoon. He was in bed. He had developed a habit of going to bed whenever he felt tired. It was not so much that he felt the need of going to bed, but he found, being a victim of reporters and so on, that the only way to protect himself was to have his clothes off and be in bed. So when he was tired he undressed, put on a white nightshirt, and went to bed, in the morning, afternoon, or anytime that he felt tired. So he invited me in. I can see him to this day—the white hair, the bushy eyebrows and the wonderful eagle face and keen eyes, and this white silk nightgown open at the breast, and the old boy balanced on the pillows. He had sent for me for this reason. He was going to take this Honorary Degree and he wanted to know about the ceremony—what he was to do and say and all about it. He had an idea that on these occasions there was a great crowd of undergraduates who ragged the people who got the Degrees, and he wanted to get ready. He had got it into his head that he had to exchange witticisms with them, and stand up for himself. I had to explain to him twain in his own time [284] that I was sorry there was nothing of that kind. He must not say a word. He must look quite solemn and dignified and quite ignore the gallery. I think he was really a bit disappointed. I think he had been looking forward to a kind of duel off with these fellows in the gallery. But he promised to be good. And he loved the whole affair, the mediæval scene, the robes, the procession, and all the dignity of it. And it was rather a striking affair. In the same procession, unless I am mistaken, there were Lord Kitchener, Rudyard Kipling, and General [William] Booth. That was a remarkable combination . Can you think of four more extraordinary people in the world to be in a procession at Oxford getting these Degrees? He said after that, “Now, if Harvard offers me an Honorary Degree, I shall say, ‘No, thank you. Oxford is good enough for me.’” Note 1. Twain had in fact received honorary Doctor of Letters degrees from Yale in 1901 and the University of Missouri in 1902. Sir George Ian MacAlister, “Mark Twain, Some Personal Reminiscences,” Landmark 20 (March 1938): 141, 143–45. ...