Although John Sayles's new film, ''Amigo,'' is set in what seems to be a remote time and place -- a hamlet called San Isidro, in the Philippines, around 1900 -- it bridges the gap in a hurry. This is not the kind of movie, and Mr. Sayles is not the type of director, to linger in the picturesque past, savoring antique details and restaging bygone...
INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev. -- McAvoy Layne climbed the stage chomping on an unlighted cigar, his shock of spray-painted white hair bright in the spotlights. ''You can't beat an audience that's been waiting 100 years,'' he said to the crowd. Mr. Layne, 67, is a Mark Twain impersonator, and for men in his business this is something of a golden age. Long...
To the Editor: Re ''Send Huck Finn to College,'' by Lorrie Moore (Op-Ed, Jan. 16): Jonathan Swift would no doubt have chuckled to read Ms. Moore's proposal to banish ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,'' by Mark Twain, from the high school curriculum -- but only as a satirist. Placing a work written to challenge us out of reach of a segment of the...
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (30. november 1835 - 21. april 1910) var en berømt og populær amerikansk humorist, forfatter og foredragsholder. Han er bedre kendt under sit nom de plume Mark Twain. Ernest Hemingway har udråbt hans Huckleberry Finn som grundlæggeren af den amerikanske litteratur.
Navnet "Mark Twain" stammer fra hans barndom. Han boede ved den lavvandede Mississippi, og han hørte hele tiden matroserne på floddamperne råbe "Mark twain" (to favne), når de målte vanddybden med måle-reb og råbte vanddybden. Der var risiko for at grundstøde på en mudderbanke i floden. "Twain" er et gammelt ord for "two".
Kort før sin død skrev Mark Twain sin selvbiografi, der efter hans eget ønske først udkom i 2010. Eksperter mener, det skyldes hans yderst åbenhjertede udtalelser.