My Debut as a Literary Person

Last week we read three essays from The Complete Essays of Mark Twain. Of the three, I thoroughly enjoyed “My Début as a Literary Person”. In the introduction, Mark Twain stated that he did not consider himself published until his work had appeared in a magazine. Humorously, after being published in a magazine, his name had been misspelled so technically he was still not published.
The article that was quasi-published pertained to the burning of the clipper-ship “Hornet” in 1866. Mark Twain had the opportunity to interview the survivors when they reached the Sandwich Islands on June 15, 1866. I found the transcripts fascinating, and was amazed how almost half the ship’s occupants survived forty-three days in a mere dingy.

The essay spared no gruesome details, and provided excellent visual description throughout. I could almost feel myself getting hungry as they described the meager food portions, and how as time passed the portions shrunk.

Mark Twain was lucky enough to travel from the Sandwich Islands to San Francisco with survivors, who shared their diaries with Mark Twain. Upon writing this essay, some thirty-three years later, Mark Twain still possesses, and cherishes, the copies that he was allowed to make of the seamen’s most intimate, and vulnerable moments.