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Mark Twain

Mark Twain (Mark Twain, real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910) — the most famous American writer, journalist, and humorist. In 1867 he visited Crimea aboard the steamship "Quaker City" during a Mediterranean cruise. His impressions of the ruins of Sevastopol after the Crimean War and his audience with Emperor Alexander II in Yalta were included in the travelogue "The Innocents Abroad" (1869), which became a national bestseller and brought Twain genuine literary success.

Overview

Mark Twain (real name — Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born on November 30, 1835. In 1867, working as a journalist, he learned about a planned cruise of Mediterranean countries aboard the American steamship "Quaker City". To join the voyage, he found a sponsor and arranged it as a journalistic assignment from two newspapers at once — "Alta California" and the "New York Tribune". Thus, aboard the ship along with pilgrims to the Vatican and Palestine, there appeared "the unbelieving passenger No. 5" — the journalist and writer Mark Twain.

The voyage lasted from June 8 to November 19, 1867. The route ran through Tangier, France, Italy, Greece, and Istanbul, but the main goal of the journey was the Holy Places in Palestine. Crimea became part of this route thanks to the then-warm relations between the russian empire and the United States: during the Civil War of 1863, Alexander II sent two squadrons to New York and San Francisco (which was seen as support for Lincoln), and immediately before the trip, in 1867, russia sold Alaska to the United States.

Crimea miraculously influenced the literary fate of the writer: it was precisely "The Innocents Abroad" (1869) that became his first major success. Later works from Twain's pen included "The Prince and the Pauper", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", and many others. Samuel Clemens died in 1910.

Key Details / Subtopics

  • Visit to Sevastopol (1867): Twain arrived in Crimea 12 years after the end of the Crimean War. As a native of the American South, he knew what devastation war leads to, but Sevastopol stunned him: "Pompeii is preserved much better than Sevastopol. Everywhere you look, there are ruins, nothing but ruins! [...] Not a single house has escaped damage, not one remains fit for habitation." American pilgrims dragged military relics with them: cannonballs, ramrods, shrapnel fragments from the Malakhov Kurgan, the Redan, Inkerman, and Balaclava.

  • Audience with Alexander II (Yalta): After touring Sevastopol, the Americans set off for Yalta, which reminded Twain of the Sierra Nevada. In Yalta, an audience with Emperor Alexander II took place, during which Twain read a message of gratitude on behalf of the American people. The Emperor and Empress emphasized the friendly relations between the countries.

  • "The Innocents Abroad" (1869): A travelogue book that brought Twain national success. The Crimean impressions became an integral part of it. It was this debut bestseller that paved the way to his subsequent literary fame.

  • Context of russian-American relations: The reputation of russians in the civilized world was not high ("they were suspicious of foreigners"), but Americans were treated more indulgently than Europeans. The United States did not participate in the Crimean War on the side of the anti-russian coalition, which explained the warm reception.

  • Immortality: Samuel Clemens died in 1910, but his literary character Mark Twain remains immortal — as the writer himself joked, "reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

  • Crimea in the works of foreign literature: A Yankee at the court of Tsar Alexander II — an article by Valerii Verkhovsky in the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia" (2019, No. 7-8), the main primary source about Mark Twain's trip to Crimea.
  • Crimean (Eastern) War of 1853–1856 in the Kherson region — the historical era whose ruins Twain observed in Sevastopol in 1867.
  • Sevastopol — the city that struck Twain with the scale of its destruction after the Crimean War.
  • Yalta — a city on the Southern Coast of Crimea where Twain had an audience with Emperor Alexander II.
  • Jules Verne and Crimea — another article in the "Crimea in the works of foreign literature" rubric about the French science-fiction writer.
  • Louis Boussenard — an article in the same rubric about the French novelist and the novel "The Zouaves of the Malakhov Mound".
  • Beryl Bainbridge — an article in the same rubric about the British writer and the novel "Master Georgie" (Crimean War).
  • Jasper Fforde — an article in the same rubric about the Welsh science-fiction writer with an alternative Crimean War.
  • George Fraser — an article in the same rubric about the Scottish writer and the Harry Flashman cycle.
  • Brian Garfield — an article in the same rubric about the American writer and the novel "Kolchak's Gold".
  • Colleen McCullough — an article in the same rubric about the Australian writer and "The Lords of Rome".
  • Harold Lamb — an article in the same rubric about the American writer and the "Cossack cycle".
  • Heinrich Böll — an article in the same rubric about the German writer and his Crimean front-line experience.
  • Andrii Shchekun — editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Krymska svitlytsia", which published the article about Mark Twain.
  • Michael Moorcock — an article in the same rubric about the British science-fiction writer and the "Chronicles of Hawkmoon" cycle (tech-fantasy) with a Crimean plot (Simferopol, Kerch, "Ukranya").