Early History of the Chautauqua Movement

Memories of High Plains Chautauqua 2007

Memories of High Plains Chautauqua 2006

Memories of 2005 High Plains Chautauqua

Memories of 2004 High Plains Chautauqua

When Samuel Clemens came into this world with Halley's Comet in 1835, James Madison was still alive. When Halley's returned and Sam rode it out 74 years later, Ronald Reagan was one year away from arriving.  So Sam saw a lot, and commented on all things large and small. As he said, "Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."

A thirty-year-old Sam Clemens wrote to his brother in 1866, “I have had the call to literature, of a low order – i.e., humorous...to excite the laughter of God’s creatures."

His first book, The Innocents Abroad, published in 1869, severed America's literary umbilical cord with Europe. And about Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1885, Ernest Hemingway would say, "All modern literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn . . . it is the best book we’ve had. There was nothing before. There has been nothing so good since."

Twain's humor allowed us to laugh at human nature and at ourselves as Americans. His social commentary causes us to reexamine our foreign policy, and through his constant deriding of shams, frauds, and humbugs, Mark Twain became the conscience of nineteenth-century America. He calls out to us even today: "Always do right, this will gratify some of the people and astonish the rest."

And his sage advice does not stop with our youth, but follows us right up to heaven's gate: "Don't take your dog; heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out."

Twain challenges America to do better.  He challenges each of us individually to examine authority thoroughly before honoring it. "The only true patriot, the only rational patriot, is loyal to the nation all of the time, and loyal to the government when it deserves it."

He comes down rather hard on religion: "As the schoolboy says, 'Faith is believin' what you know ain't so.'" And, “Man is the religious animal. He is the only religious animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion – several of them.” But then he reminds himself following the Whittier birthday fiasco, "Ah, I am a great and sublime fool. But then I am God’s fool, and all His works must be contemplated with respect."

Perhaps Kipling put it best when he said, "Blessed is the man who finds no disillusion when he is brought face to face with a revered writer. The landing of a twelve-pound salmon is nothing to it."

And when they received their honorary degrees at Oxford together, Kipling observed, "When Mark Twain advanced to receive the hood, even those dignified old Oxford dons stood up and yelled. To my knowledge he was the largest man of his time, both in direct outcome of his work, and, more important still, as an indirect force in an age of iron philistinism. Later generations don’t know their debt, of course, and they would be quite surprised if they did."

 

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MCAVOY LAYNE

For twenty years, in over two thousand performances from Leningrad University in Russia to Piper’s Opera House in Virginia City, McAvoy Layne has been preeminent, in preserving the wit & wisdom of “The Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slope,” Mark Twain.

Says McAvoy, “It’s like being a Monday through Friday preacher whose sermon, though not reverently pious, is fervently American.”

McAvoy is the ghost of Samuel Clemens in A&E’s Biography of Mark Twain, and in the Discovery Channel’s Cronkite Award-winning documentary, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  He is a winner of the Nevada award for excellence in school and library service, a multi-winner of Nevada Magazine’s list of top Nevada attractions, and is currently collaborating with Baron von Remmel on a musical comedy, Nevada’s Story.

                                                                                                                       

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RECOMMENDED READING

Kaplan, Justin. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain. Simon & Schuster, 1966.

Powers, Ron. Mark Twain - A Life. Free Press, 2005.

Twain, Mark. Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Oxford University Press, 1996.

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SIGNIFICANT POINTS ABOUT MARK TWAIN

“The man lecturing has a very large nose and anyone whose nose exceeds its measurement will be admitted free. All other noses must pay one dollar.”

“The name is Twain, I'm five-foot-eight-and-a-half inches tall, weigh a hundred-and-forty-five pounds, and have a damn good moral character!”

“For only one night, and only a portion of that!”

“I am going to disgorge a few lies and as much truth as I can pump out without damaging my constitution.”

“I have always been able to paralyze the public interest in any topic that I chose to take hold of and elucidate with all my strength.”

“I promise no amusement, but do promise a reasonable amount of instruction.”

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