Fan Favorite: Great American Authors | Mark Twain: Voice of a Nation | 3

0:00One, three, one.

0:12American History Tellers:Imagine it's a sunny afternoon in March 1857 in New Orleans, Louisiana. You're a seasoned steamboat pilot, and you're standing in the pilot house of the Colonel Crossman. Your hands grasp the large wooden wheel as you steer the boat out of New Orleans to begin another voyage up the Mississippi River. A figure appears in the doorway of the pilot house, a slender man with a shock of unruly red hair. You recognize him as Sam Clemens, the starry-eyed young man who spent much of the journey down from St. Louis chatting with you. Oh, it's you again. I thought you were off to find your fortune in the Amazon.

0:47American History Tellers:Clemens shrugs as he joins you at the wheel. Change of plans. As it turns out, there won't be any ships heading that way for a long time, and I don't have the funds to wait around. So now what? You heading back to St. Louis? Clemens smiles. In a way, I'm hoping you'll take me on as a cub pilot. You shake your head and return your gaze to the river. I like you, kid, but taking on an apprentice is a big responsibility, and I'm not interested in that. I won't be a burden, I swear. I'll make it easy for you. Navigating the Mississippi isn't for the faint of heart. It's over a thousand miles to St.

1:20American History Tellers:Louis, and you need to learn every twist and turn. You need to know when a ripple on the surface means danger below. because if you mess up, an underwater tree branch or rock will rip the hole open wide. This is a job where inexperience can be deadly. Yeah, well, I'm tough and I'm a hard worker. I'll do whatever it takes to prove myself. You narrow your eyes skeptically. His bright eyes radiate joy. Oh, come on, I know you like my company. What I lack in expertise, I'll make up for in lively conversation. Well, you know how to tell a good story, I'll give you that. And I grew up on this river.

1:54American History Tellers:It's in my bones. I know it is. You scan the sprawling river beyond the window, considering the proposal. Fine, but don't expect coddling. All right, you have to listen to everything I tell you. No arguments. Clemens nods eagerly. Of course. Yeah, whatever you say goes. And I'm not doing this for free. It's going to cost you$500. $100 down, and the rest will come out of your wages. $100. Got it. It's yours. I promise you. You won't regret this. We'll see. But we might as well start now. This section is calm enough. Go ahead and take her. You stand back and surrender your position at the wheel to Clemens.

2:32American History Tellers:With a confident grin, he closes his fingers around the polished wheel. But you sense a twitch of nervousness beneath his bravado. Kid's not stupid, and enthusiasm is not enough to navigate this river, where a small mistake can mean the difference between life and death.

2:53American History Tellers:A friendly reminder, although Wondery Plus is going away on May 21st, you can still listen to this show on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts. To continue enjoying Wondery Plus listening benefits like early, binge, and ad-free listening, sign up for an Audible membership today on audible.com or the Audible app. I'm Leon Nafok. What happens when OnlyFans becomes more than just a side hustle? Only Fantasy is an in-depth look at the world's newest profession and how the rules of human intimacy are being rewritten online. Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or binge all episodes of Only Fantasy ad-free only on Audible.

3:38American History Tellers:From Wondery, I'm Lindsey Graham, and this is American History Tellers, our history, your story.

3:59American History Tellers:In March 1857, 21-year-old Samuel Clemens persuaded a steamboat pilot to take him on as an apprentice on the Mississippi River. The murky waters of the nation's lifeline would prove a rich training ground for the man who would one day gain fame under the name Mark Twain. Twain lived a life of constant reinvention, one that mirrored the seismic changes unfolding across America in the second half of the 19th century. From his humble beginnings in rural Missouri, he crisscrossed the country working as a typesetter, a steamboat pilot, and a prospector. But he ultimately found his calling as a writer.

4:34American History Tellers:In newspaper articles, travel dispatches, comic sketches, and novels, Twain chronicled the complexities of his times, exposing corruption and inequality. With his cutting wit, sharp observations, and natural storytelling ability, Twain captured the voice of the American people and built a legacy as the quintessential American writer. But at the very height of his literary success, his obsession with financial gain threatened to destroy him. This is Episode 3 in our six-part series on great American authors. Voice of a Nation

5:12American History Tellers:Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in the hamlet of Florida, Missouri. That night, a streak of light blazed through the night sky. It was Halley's Comet, which orbits the sun roughly every 75 years. Sam was the sixth of seven children born to John and Jane Clemens. John was a struggling merchant and lawyer. He suffered from chronic financial failure, and he rarely laughed. Sam inherited his playful sense of humor and way with words from his mother, Jane, who loved music, dancing, and telling stories. When Sam was three, his family moved to Hannibal, a small Mississippi River town 100 miles northwest of St.

5:53American History Tellers:Louis. John hoped to find new opportunities there, but the family continued to live on the edge of poverty. That same year, Sam's older sister died of a fever. Three years later, he lost his older brother. These deaths left a lasting mark on him. He suffered from nightmares and was prone to sleepwalking. By the time he was seven, he began fleeing outside at every opportunity. He befriended a group of local boys, and they went fishing on the Mississippi River, explored caves, and played pranks on their neighbors. And every summer, Sam spent several weeks at his uncle's nearby farm. At night, he and his cousins gathered in the home of an enslaved man they called Uncle Daniel, who told them tall tales and ghost stories that Sam would carry with him for the rest of his life.

6:37American History Tellers:Growing up in Missouri, Sam was surrounded by slavery. His father and his relatives owned enslaved laborers. He later recalled, In my schoolboy days, I had no aversion to slavery. I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it. Even so, scenes of cruelty toward enslaved people stuck with him. He once witnessed a dozen enslaved people chained together on Hannibal's Wharf, waiting to be sold downriver. He would forever remember the scythe, later writing, Those were the saddest faces I have ever seen. When Sam was 11, his father died of pneumonia. To help support his family, Sam left school to work as a printer's apprentice, and by the time he was 14, he started working for his older brother Orion, owner of the Hannibal Journal newspaper.

7:23American History Tellers:There, Sam worked as a typesetter, performing the painstaking work of arranging the words and headlines on each of the journal's pages. But he also began writing, occasionally contributing articles and humorous sketches. But Orion neglected to pay his younger brother a steady salary, and by 1853, Sam had had enough. After promising his mother he wouldn't drink or gamble, he packed his bags and left Hannibal. He spent the next few years wandering the country, working as a typesetter in St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati. In 1857, Clemens boarded a Mississippi River steamboat bound for New Orleans.

7:59American History Tellers:From there, he intended to travel down to South America, where he planned to make his fortune trading coca plants. But by the time he arrived in New Orleans, he had a new dream. He persuaded a veteran steamboat pilot named Horace Bixby to take him on as an apprentice. Over the next two years, Bixby trained him in the difficult job of navigating the twisting, 1 ,200-mile river. Clemens was tasked with memorizing every landmark, bend, and changing depth. He later reflected, The Face of the Water in Time became a wonderful book which told me its most cherished secrets. By the spring of 1858, Clemens was working as a cub pilot on the steamer Pennsylvania.

8:38American History Tellers:He persuaded his younger brother Henry to join the crew as a clerk, but shortly after Clemens transferred to a different boat while Henry remained. Then, on June 13, 1858, the boilers on the Pennsylvania exploded, killing 160 people on board, including Sam's brother, Henry. Clemens was just 22 years old. In the days after his brother's death, he wrote, The horrors have swept over me. They have blasted my youth and left me an old man before my time. Guilt over Henry's death would plague him for the rest of his life. The next year, in 1859, Sam finally obtained his pilot's license. He thought he would live out the rest of his days on the river, savoring the freedom, the stable income, and the chance to meet people from all walks of life.

9:24American History Tellers:But in the spring of 1861, the outbreak of the Civil War ground all river traffic to a halt and brought his pilot career to a premature end. When some of his childhood friends enlisted in a volunteer Confederate militia company in Missouri, he decided to join them more for adventure than any ideological commitment to the Confederacy. But he quit after just two weeks before ever seen battle. A few months later, in July 1861, Clemens' brother Orion was appointed secretary of the Nevada Territory as a reward for helping Abraham Lincoln's presidential campaign. Clemens decided to join him, and the brothers boarded a stagecoach and journeyed west.

10:03American History Tellers:In Nevada, Clemens tried his hand at gold and silver mining. But after failing to strike it rich, he returned to his roots in the newspaper business. He began writing for the Territorial enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada. It was the most widely read newspaper between San Francisco and Chicago. Clemens relished the life of a journalist. As a territory on the cusp of statehood, Nevada had a charged political climate with plenty of story fodder. He especially enjoyed drinking, smoking, and playing cards with his fellow reporters. And it was there, in February 1863, that he signed an article as Mark Twain, a name derived from his piloting career.

10:41American History Tellers:Mark Twain was the term used for two fathoms, or 12 feet, the safe depth for steamboat navigation on the Mississippi River. He would use this pen name for the rest of his career. The territorial enterprise often published satirical, semi-fictional stories, and in October 1863, Twain used such a story to bring attention to a San Francisco water company that was defrauding its investors. He invented a tale about one of the investors becoming so deranged that he killed and scalped his wife and seven children. The gruesome hoax article sparked widespread outcry and made Twain infamous.

11:20American History Tellers:Imagine it's early November 1863 in Virginia City, Nevada. You're the editor of the Territorial Enterprise, and after a long day at work, you're finishing a glass of ale in a dimly lit saloon. The scent of whiskey and stale cigars lingers in the air. You're trying to get the attention of the bartender. When someone pulls up a seat beside you, it's one of your reporters, Sam Clemens. You clap him on the shoulder. Hey, Sam, how are you? Sam shrugs sheepishly. I've been looking all over for you. I want to apologize for that story. I'm sorry. I never should have written the damn thing. Oh, forget it.

11:55American History Tellers:It's water under the bridge. No need to keep dwelling on it. Sam runs a hand through his hair. Well, I think I should tender my resignation. Don't be ridiculous. We've already gone above and beyond by issuing a retraction. There's nothing more to be done. And besides, anyone with half a brain could tell it was satire. The piece was full of all the usual clues. They should have known it was fictional. Well, then how come the Sacramento Union and the San Francisco Evening Bulletin picked up the story and presented it as fact? It's like I said, not everyone has the brains to appreciate your humor.

12:27American History Tellers:You give the bartender a grateful smile as he finally refills your glass. You turn back to Sam, and he shifts his weight in his seat. It's clear he's still troubled. Well, it doesn't change the fact that the readers are canceling their subscriptions. They're probably all going to start reading the Daily Union instead. I tell you, I fear I've done irreparable damage to the credibility of the Enterprise. You set your glass down in frustration. Oh, now look. If you hadn't written such a sensational story, no one would have paid any attention to the water company's fraud. You made up that investor and his family, so what?

13:00American History Tellers:The parts of this story that really mattered were all true. I guess so. And you're not the first reporter to write a hoax article. We walk a fine line between fact and fiction, and sometimes we stumble. So you took it a little too far. But you're a rare talent, and I'm not going to let you resign. Sam's eyes meet yours. He nods, and you clap him on the back again. All right, enough of this. I'm buying you a drink, but only one. Don't forget you owe me a story by noon tomorrow. A smile tugs at the corner of Sam's lips as you signal the bartender. You're relieved to keep Sam on staff, because your newspaper needs his insight and sharp wit.

13:42American History Tellers:After stirring controversy with his hoax article, Twain tried to resign from the enterprise, but his editor refused. He continued writing for the newspaper, but by the spring of 1864, Twain was ready for a new adventure. He moved to San Francisco, where he continued working as a reporter. There, he was shocked by violence toward the city's growing Chinese immigrant population. He wrote a story about white men attacking a Chinese immigrant as police stood idly by, but his editor refused to publish it. A few months later, Twain was fired. Having lost his job, Twain set off for the Sierra foothills to try prospecting for gold.

14:19American History Tellers:In January 1865, he was sitting around a campfire when he heard a man tell a story about a gambler who would bet on anything, even a jumping frog. Twain wrote the story down, adding his own comic flourishes, and sent it to a friend, who submitted it to the New York Saturday Press, who published it. The story was soon reprinted in newspapers throughout America to wide acclaim, and Twain had his first big break. On the heels of this success, in 1866, the Sacramento Union hired Twain to write travel dispatches from Hawaii, then an independent kingdom. His stories were hit with readers. In one article, he mocked the efforts of American Christian missionaries, writing, How sad it is to think of the multitudes who have gone to their graves in this beautiful island and never knew there was a hell.

15:06American History Tellers:When Twain returned to the United States, he went on the lecture circuit, turning his articles into sold-out stage performances. audiences were delighted by his vivid descriptions and deadpan humor. In the summer of 1867, a San Francisco newspaper hired him as a travel writer. He joined a five-month pleasure cruise bound for Europe and the Middle East. In widely read articles, Twain satirized the wealthy tourists on board the ship. And unlike previous American travel writers who assumed the superiority of European culture, Twain wrote from a distinctly American perspective. He compared the Nile River to the Mississippi and the rocky hills of Greece to the rough terrain of Nevada.

15:46American History Tellers:During his journey, he met a fellow passenger named Charles Langdon, who showed Twain a picture of his sister, Olivia. For Twain, it was love at first sight. And after the tour ended in late 1867, Langdon introduced Twain to his sister, who was called Livy by her friends and family. Unlike Twain, Livy had a serious demeanor and a strong religious devotion. Despite their differences, Twain was smitten. He started writing daily letters to her. Libby was determined to reform him and send him copies of her reverend sermons. Twain promised to give up drinking and attend church if only she would have him.

16:22American History Tellers:Twain also got to know Libby's father, Jervis Langdon, who made his fortune in the coal industry. Langdon held such strong abolitionist beliefs that he left the church when it refused to condemn slavery. Before the Civil War, Jervis worked as a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping runaways escape slavery. And the more time Twain spent with the Langdons, the more he questioned the racist views he absorbed during his childhood. His changing ideals were made apparent as he got to work on his first book. During his time in Italy in 1867, he met a black man who had escaped slavery in South Carolina and was working as a tour guide in Venice.

17:00American History Tellers:Twain was impressed by his knowledge of languages and art history writing that he reads, writes, and speaks English, Italian, Spanish, and French with perfect facility. And in July 1869, Twain published these observations in The Innocents Abroad, an account of his voyage overseas. It was a subscription book, sold door-to-door to rural farmers and tradesmen, the types of readers who rarely visited bookstores. But in 18 months, it sold more than 80 ,000 copies, and Twain earned approximately$16 ,000 in royalties, nearly$400 ,000 in today's money. It was a critical success, earning a positive review in the prestigious Atlantic Monthly magazine.

17:41American History Tellers:Twain would later write, I have never tried to cultivate the cultivated classes. I always hunted for bigger game, the masses. Dwayne's publisher promoted him as the people's author, and even before his 35th birthday, Dwayne had become one of the most popular writers in America. But his greatest heights and darkest lows were still to come.

18:05I'm Raza Jaffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who, they open the file on Benedict Arnold, the spy who betrayed the American Revolution. America is fighting to free itself from the British Empire. and one of its foremost generals is Benedict Arnold. He's a smuggler turned battlefield hero and admired for his aggressive tactics. But when a war wound, a new wife, debts and politics test his loyalty to the mags, he turns spy and devises a plot to shatter the revolution and help Britain capture rebel commander-in-chief General George Washington. And that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in U.S.

18:48history. Follow The Spy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of The Spy Who Betrayed the American Revolution early and ad-free on Audible.

19:06As Americans, we're constantly grappling with the fundamental question. Do we settle for the world as it is? Or do we strive to create the world as it should be? Our answers tend to ebb and flow through the decades. But once, just after a war that nearly tore us apart, we came as close as we've come to answering it. And it's a story worth a closer look. I'm Michelle Obama, and I'm proud to announce Higher Ground's new podcast, Reconstruction, The Unfinished Promise. Guided by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell and featuring my husband, Barack Obama, This limited series uncovers the untold stories of Reconstruction, what they mean for us today, and how our past can shape the future we choose to build.

19:56Reconstruction, the unfinished promise, is available now on Audible or wherever you get your podcasts.

20:28American History Tellers:The Newlyweds

20:33American History Tellers:Twain was grateful for the luxuries which he could not afford on his own. But tragedy struck that August when Jervis died of stomach cancer. A month later, a close friend of Livy's also died. And then in November, Livy gave birth prematurely to the couple's first son, Langdon. Though he survived, the infant remained sickly. The following year, the Clemens family decided to start over in the prosperous city of Hartford, Connecticut. it. In March 1872, Livvy gave birth to a healthy daughter named Susie. But just nine weeks later, their firstborn, 19-month-old Langdon, died from diphtheria. Twain blamed himself for not dressing the child warmly enough for a carriage ride.

21:14American History Tellers:Livvy stopped going to church, declaring that she was almost perfectly cold toward God. After their son's death, Twain threw himself into his work. By the summer of 1872, he had sold nearly 70 ,000 copies of his latest book, Roughing It, a rollicking semi-autobiographical account of his adventures in the West. The following year, he collaborated with his Hartford neighbor, writer Charles Dudley Warner, on his first novel, entitled The Gilded Age. It was a biting satire of the corruption, excess, and feverish speculation that dominated post-war America. The novel gave the era its name. But despite his criticisms of the rich in the Gilded Age, Twain held contradictory ideas about wealth.

21:58American History Tellers:On the one hand, he believed that the pursuit of wealth was corrupting America. He criticized the politicians and industry titans who gained money and power at the expense of ordinary working people. But at the same time, Twain desperately wanted to avoid the financial struggles that dominated his childhood. He craved the comforts that eluded his father. He was obsessed with money, both making it and spending it. In 1874, he used his book royalties and Livy's inheritance to begin construction on a new permanent family home. It was an ostentatious mansion in Hartford, complete with Tiffany stained glass, Venetian tapestries, and a large household staff.

22:39American History Tellers:Even after construction was complete, he continued adding expensive improvements. Livy wrote, Mr. Clemens seems to glory in his sense of possession. In June of 1874, Livvy gave birth to another daughter named Clara, and a third daughter, Jean, would soon follow. Starting that year, the family spent their summers at Quarry Farm in Elmira, New York, where Livvy's sister, Susan, lived. Susan had a hilltop study built on the farm so Twain could write in isolation. It was an octagonal pavilion with sweeping views of the valley below. Over the next two decades, Twain would write his most famous books in this summer refuge.

23:17American History Tellers:For hours each day, he wrote until his hand cramped, all while puffing on a cigar. In the evenings, he gathered his family around him, read aloud, and gauged their reactions to his work. One summer evening in 1874, Twain and his family sat down on the porch of Quarry Farm with Susan's cook, a formerly enslaved woman named Mary Ann Cord. Cord recounted her life story, describing the agony of her former owner separating her from her husband and seven children. Years later, she unexpectedly reunited with her youngest son. He had become a Union Army soldier and turned up at the camp where Cord was a cook.