Lauren Huck Finn Experts

The article "The Life of Samuel Clemens and the Reception of Huckleberry Finn" shares many of my own views and points out many of the similarities between the life of Mark Twain (AKA Samuel Clemens) and the world in Huckleberry Finn. For example "Although Clemens rarely visited Hannibal after he left in 1853, his experiences there played a large role in his writing and, indeed, strongly shaped his best known works, Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The St. Petersburg of these novels is a largely faithful rendition of Hannibal in the 1840's." (Page 20-21) As I have pointed out before the boyhood adventures of Mark Twain are reflected in much of Huckleberry Finn both in the characters and events, as well as the town of St. Petersburg. The article also mentions the origins of Samuel Clemens' pen name of Mark Twain, "In a comic travel piece he filed from Carson City in February 1863, Clemens first signed his name as "Mark Twain." Clemens later said that he took the name, which on the Mississippi meant "two fathoms," from an old writer-pilot named Isaiah Sellers; in Nevada, however, the term meant two drinks bought on credit, so Clemens may have wanted his readers to think of this meaning as well."(Page 22) The author brings up some good ideas in what Twain may have wanted his readers to think of when they read his name. I was unaware that Clemens had taken the name from a writer-pilot, and had assumed that it was his love of the Mississippi and his time on a steamboat that had inspired him to take the pen name Mark Twain. One of the most interesting things the article mentioned that I had not previously known was about Clemens as a father. "Though Clemens loved his daughters, he was a difficult father, one who did not find it easy to grant them anything like the independence he valued in Huck." (Page 24) I found it odd that for all the freedom and adventures he gave his characters he could not bring himself to grant his children the same.