Picture book biographies can introduce younger readers to fascinating people from every realm. Through these pictures, younger readers can learn not only about the accomplishments of famous people, but can also learn about their character and temperament. Later, as these younger readers advance to reading young adult biographies, they may want to reacquaint themselves with these individuals and learn even more about them.

The focus of last month’s column was Alice Roosevelt, the irrepressible daughter of Teddy Roosevelt. As portrayed in the picture book biography What To Do about Alice?, written by Barbara Kerley and illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham, Alice was a renegade spirit who loved to challenge the status quo. With considerable humor and compassion, the author touches on her escapades, rebellions, and setbacks, and her powerful need to establish who she was on her own, sometimes outrageous, terms.

This same author-illustrator team also created The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy), a picture book biography about another famous American and his daughter. This time, the father is legendary humorist Mark Twain and the daughter is Susy Clements, the oldest of his three girls.

Both Alice Roosevelt and Susy Clements had to share their fathers with the outside world and were often in the public eye, and both knew aspects of these remarkable men that others didn’t know about. The relationship between Mark Twain and Susy seemed to have a natural ease and flow, whereas Alice and Teddy Roosevelt’s relationship could be characterized as contentious.

MARK TWAIN’S WORLD

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy) examines his everyday life—looking at his frustrations, concerns, and personal delights. It chronicles his habits and routines, how he relaxed, where and when he did his writing, and what may have inspired him. It certainly addresses the question, “Was the day-to-day Mark Twain always funny?”

It was Susy, at the age of 13, who became obsessed with documenting the details of her father’s life, and capturing the fullness of his personality. She wanted to create something from her unique perspective that would be fresh and authentic—a biography that would reveal his serious side and sense of self-discipline.

“I never saw a man with so much variety of feeling as Papa has.”
—from Susy’s journal

But being objective would certainly be a challenge, because her father was someone she clearly loved and admired. Could she write about his shortcomings and not feel she was intruding on his privacy?

The pages of her journal, interlaced throughout this book, are telling and insightful, adding a rich layering to Mark Twain’s story. Readers should find this unusual format enticing. It’s like having direct access to the subject and being in on every secret.

Young Mark Twain of Hannibal, Missouri, might have seemed like a hooky-playing hooligan, but he was really a scholar-in-the-making. School was perhaps too rote and pedantic for him, and he preferred to learn about the world through hands-on experiences.

Honing a variety of skills, he worked for a printer, piloted a Mississippi River steamboat, and then became a reporter for the Sacramento Union, which allowed him to travel to the Sandwich Islands. When he returned from that last adventure, he joined the lecture circuit, where he could spin his colorful yarns.

The poster advertising this event conveys, in part, the essence and style of his humor. It poked fun at all the hype that producers used in their advertising—the razzle-dazzle words and inflated promises. Usually, what was promised was just a tantalizing tease, and what was delivered could be described as the Big Letdown.

Through such an ad, Mark Twain was setting the tone for his audience, and preparing them for his irreverence. This was not going to be the standard stuffy academic lecture that they were perhaps used to. Instead, he was offering something original, with a satirical slant.

“Mark Twain will deliver a Lecture on the Sandwich Islands

A SPLENDID ORCHESTRA

Is in town, but has not been engaged.

A DEN OF FEROCIOUS WILD BEASTS

Will be on Exhibition in the next Block.

MAGNIFICENT FIREWORKS

Were in contemplation for this occasion,

but the idea has been abandoned.

A GRAND TORCHLIGHT PROCESSSION

May be expected; in fact, the public are

privileged to expect whatever they please.

Doors Open at 7 o’clock

The Trouble to begin at 8 o’clock.”

MARK TWAIN’S WORK HABITS

At home, sitting at his office desk, Mark Twain would begin work, starting right after the morning meal. His level of energy, discipline, and concentration allowed him to enter a project fully. During a productive spurt, he could write about fifty pages. And he would share these pages with his family, allowing them to act as a sort of sounding board.

During the nighttime, if any idea popped into his head, he would go rushing downstairs to put his thoughts on paper. Candles and kerosene lamps provided the light that he needed, and he never worried about what time it was.

Because the language he used could be colorful, with his characters cursing profusely, he relied on his wife to keep him in check. By editing his chapters and acting as his censor, she made sure that his words would not offend or outrage too many readers. In truth, Mark Twain loved to provoke, and she had “the good taste to clean up any questionable passages.”

One of Mark Twain’s biggest frustrations was the parade of fans that would visit the family’s magnificent home in Hartford. They wanted to meet and exchange small talk with the renowned celebrity. This could be quite a distraction, interrupting his thinking and writing.

Once he remarked that sometimes “mentally dead people brought their corpses with them for a long visit.” Obviously, he was not enamored with fawning, worshipful fans, and disliked replying to their “irksome” letters.

But he very much enjoyed seeing his works in print. For Susy, a favorite of her father’s books was The Prince and the Pauper, and she was enchanted by its “lovely charming ideas.” And Mark Twain himself described his masterwork The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as “rattling good.”

In fact, Mark Twain was a true appreciator of his own writing, and Susy once saw him practically keel over with laughter while reading in his rocking chair. The book he was so caught up in was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

INSPIRATIONS

The experience of living his childhood by the Mississippi River inspired his novels. Mark Twain not only loved the river, but also felt a kinship with those of the river community—the sailors, storytellers, gamblers, and schemers.

To Mark Twain, the river represented freedom, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about the hunger for freedom and wanting to escape from slavery and confinement. That is why the image of Huck and Jim rafting downriver will always be indelibly affecting.

Another inspiring setting for him was Quarry Farm, which belonged to his wife’s sister. It became his refuge, and he loved its beauty and quietude, and the fact that it was “far away from peering eyes and pesky visitors.” Ironically, he spent a lot of time there with a pesky donkey named Kiditchin. This donkey, not the least bit impressed by Mark Twain’s celebrity, obeyed him only when treats were provided.

A personal inspiration for Mark Twain was his daughter Susy. When he discovered she was writing a secret biography about his life, he saw this as “the finest compliment he had ever received.” Stirred by her effort, he was particularly proud that she wanted to present him in a balanced manner, noting both his special qualities as well as his flaws.

And Susy had an abundance of material to work with, because her father was a true eccentric. Here was a man who liked to converse with cats, play billiards through the night, “wave his napkin to punctuate a particular point,” and toss his shirts out on the lawn if there were buttons that needed to be sewn on. Also, he rarely held back his temper, was a chronic pacer, marathon smoker, and hated going to church and hearing sermons.

“…he told me the other day, that he couldn’t bear to hear anyone talk but himself, but he could listen to himself talk for hours without getting tired, of course he said this in joke, but I’ve no doubt it was founded on truth.”
—from Susy’s journal

THE SERIOUS MARK TWAIN

Among Susy’s most tender moments with her father was “promenading up and down the library.” During this lovely father-daughter ritual, Mark Twain would express his more serious and philosophical side, and the two discussed “affairs of state” and “the deep questions of human life.”

Many people didn’t know that Mark Twain was an advocate for creating international copyright laws. But Susy understood that, for her father, this was a project of enormous importance.

“He is known to the public as a humorist, but he has so much more in him that is earnest than that is humorous.”
—from Susy’s journal

Excerpts from the 130-page biography Susy wrote were used by her father, twenty years later, when he published his autobiography. For students seeking to write a biography, Barbara Kerley has written some excellent guidelines at the back of this book.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Mark Twain could be sly, stubborn, sympathetic, and unapologetic. He understood human foibles, hated hypocrisy, and could get lost in the fog of his own imagination. No wonder people called him absent-minded.

This book made me think again about why I was always so captivated by Mark Twain’s stories. For one thing, I loved his affection for exaggerators and prevaricators. A master hoodwinker himself, Mark Twain created characters that were often con artists, and knew how to outfox and outmaneuver anyone they encountered. Huck Finn, for instance, could tell the boldest lies in the most earnest manner, and Tom Sawyer took pleasure in tricking others when he had to whitewash his family’s picket fence.

I also delighted in his disdain for those uppity-types—the ones who are pretentious, pompous, and always bragging about their degrees and credentials. Oh, how Mark Twain loved using his pen to go after them, exposing their arrogance and vanity.

IDEAS FOR STUDENTS: A WRITING AND DRAWING PROJECT

My Special Grownup and the People and Things That Inspired Her (or Him)

Have middle-grade students recall and discuss how the Mississippi River inspired Mark Twain—so much so that it became the heart and setting of his most acclaimed novel. Next, have each student interview a grownup they especially admire, and find out who or what inspired that grownup at different points in his or her life.

Using their notes or recordings, students can cull through and organize their findings and create a five-page illustrated book. They might also want to include photos and documents. One student, for example, could feature a program cover (or drawing of a program cover) from the play that inspired his or her grownup’s lifelong interest in theater and acting.