Impressions of the West: Mark Twain

Photo courtesy of Encyclopedia Britanica Blog

In 1861, at the tender age of 26, Mark Twain embarked on several years of 'variegated vagabondizing' - via an overland stage coach - in the Far West. The original purpose for the journey was to work as private secretary to his brother, who had just been appointed the Secretary of Nevada Territory. Twain envied his brother because:

"Pretty soon he would be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and may be get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it, and be a hero."

Roughing It, Mark Twain, Chapter I         

And so Twain made the journey that would yield Roughing It, still one of the best, and most fun to read, books on the American West.

The South Pass, from Roughing It

Here is Twain's description of South Pass, Wyoming:

"And now, at last, we were fairly in the renowned SOUTH PASS, and whirling gayly along high above the common world. We were perched upon the extreme summit of the great range of the Rocky Mountains, toward which we had been climbing, patiently climbing, ceaselessly climbing, for days and nights together—and about us was gathered a convention of Nature's kings that stood ten, twelve, and even thirteen thousand feet high—grand old fellows who would have to stoop to see Mount Washington, in the twilight. We were in such an airy elevation above the creeping populations of the earth, that now and then when the obstructing crags stood out of the way it seemed that we could look around and abroad and contemplate the whole great globe, with its dissolving views of mountains, seas and continents stretching away through the mystery of the summer haze."

Roughing It, Mark Twain, Chapter 12         

 Near South Pass, Wyoming. Photo courtesy of tomwestbrook

First edition of Roughing It, by Mark Twain

Impressions of the West: James Joyce

Photo courtesy of Citypages.com.

James Joyce isn't the first name that leaps to mind among authors who have written about the American West. But he spoke about it at least once, in his collection of short stories, Dubliners - first published in 1914, although under development since 1905. In the autobiographical short story, An Encounter, Joyce describes how he and his friends used to play:

"It was Joe Dillon who introduced the Wild West to us. He had a little library made up of old numbers of The Union Jack, Pluck and The Halfpenny Marvel. Every evening after school we met in his back garden and arranged Indian battles. He and his fat young brother Leo, the idler, held the loft of the stable while we tried to carry it by storm; or we fought a pitched battle on the grass. But, however well we fought, we never won siege or battle and all our bouts ended with Joe Dillon's war dance of victory. His parents went to eight o'clock mass every morning in Gardiner Street and the peaceful odour of Mrs. Dillon was prevalent in the hall of the home. But he played too fiercely for us who were younger and more timid. He looked like some kind of an Indian when he capered round the garden, an oid tea-cosy on his head, beating a tin with his fist and yelling:

'Ya! yaka, yaka, yaka!'

Everyone was increduluous when it was reported that he had a vocation for the priesthood. Nevertheless it was true.'

Dubliners, (p. 11-12; Norton Critical Edition), James Joyce         

The Union Jack, Pluck and The Halfpenny Marvel, by the way, were boys' magazines published in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Alfred Harmsworth (aka Lord Northcliffe). Stories in each tended to focus on westerns, especially once Harmsworth allowed his readers to vote on which were their favorites.

Here's a cover of the The Halfpenny Marvel in 1896:

Photo courtesy of Comicsuk.co.uk

And here's a cover of another Harmsworth publication at around the same time, The Boys' Friend:

Photo courtesy of CrystalKnights.co.uk

Impressions of the West: Gary Snyder

 

The Etiquette of Freedom is a new book chronicling a cosmic-ranging conversation between two of the great poets of the West: Gary Snyder and Jim Harrison. Here is a snippet of that conversation, in which Snyder describes the area around his home in the Sierra Nevadas:

"It's quite clear that all of the year-round spring sites on the Sierra ridge that I live on were Indian settlements. Grinding stones are around there, and the oaks are bigger. They were nourished by special treatment - it's quite interesting to see, and it has taken me years to develop the eye to see that. Some old Native American, Native Californian women who do basket weaving went out with me in the woods there, and they were looking through the forest and meadows saying, 'We are responsible for that.' ... Meaning a certain oak grove, meaning a meadow that had lots of bunches of deer grass growing for basketry. And then they would look elsewhere in the woods and say, 'We didn't touch that.'

So the community is the whole neighborhood in which you clench the nonhuman. ...

I'm just waiting until the price of gasoline gets really high and then some future generation up in the Northern Sierra will have horses again."

The Etiquette of Freedom (pp. 50-51, 53), Gary Snyder and Jim Harrison