“People who didn’t know twain often thought he was drunk.”
San Francisco. Twain always joked about how lazy he was, but my impression is that he just wanted to be free from the stress and pressures of society. Americans knew Hawai‘i was an exotic paradise. The US had business interests there and the missionaries in Hawai‘i regularly conducted fund raising tours in the states, so news from the islands regularly appeared in just about every newspaper. Twain’s first impressions of Hawai‘i were formed as a boy in Missouri when he was asked in Sunday school to donate pennies to help convert and educate the “savages”, despite the fact that they had already converted en masse and were actually more literate than many Americans. A year or two before he left for the islands in 1866, Twain became good friends with Charles Warren Stoddard, who was then a poet and later became a famous travel author.
John Richard Stephens, a resident of Hawaii, is
Stoddard had just returned from touring the
the author/editor of 23 books, including Wyatt
South Seas and was loaded with stories. Twain
Earp Speaks, Gold, Commanding the Storm and
knew other people who had gone there and
The Wildest Lives of the Wild West. John’s books
dreamed of going himself, but he turned down
have been recommended by the Preferred
his first chance because of commitments. He
Choice Book Club, the Quality Paperback Book
almost immediately regretted it and within two
Club, the Book of the Month Club and the Civil
months finagled a second chance.
War Trust. NOW: For his new project, Mark Twain’s Hawaii: A
Twain was still a relatively young man when
Humorous Romp through History (TwoDot,
he undertook the trip, around 10 years away
July 2022), Stephens traces Twain’s journey
from writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
through the island just as he experienced it in
Could you sum up his circumstances – and the
1866. In this exclusive interview, NOW spoke
direction his life seemed to be heading – in
to Stephens about the formative nature of the
1866?
author’s trip, the world’s impression of Hawaii and Twain’s views on the British.
Stephens: Twain left school after the fifth grade when
NOW:
his father died to become an unpaid printer’s
As you explain early in Mark Twain’s Hawaii,
assistant for local newspapers. When he was
Twain clearly held great desire to visit Hawai‘i
eighteen, he set out on his own working for
for a while prior to his maiden trip. Why do you
newspapers in New York City, Philadelphia,
think the islands particularly appealed to him?
Cincinnati, and St. Louis. Then he changed
in Hartford,
careers and became a riverboat pilot on the
Connecticut. By
Stephens:
Mississippi River.
Twain was enticed by the idea of carefree
Facing (left): The book’s cover Facing (right): Mark Twain House
Kenneth C. Zirkel - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://
living on peaceful, laid-back islands, escaping
When the Civil War halted trade on the river,
the drudgery of being a newspaper reporter in
he and his brother headed to what was then
4
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