Samuel Clemens found himself broke and relied on a previous trade, journalism. After reading about the Quaker City leaving New York for the Holy Land and Europe, in a New York newspaper, Clemens decided to visit his mother, Mrs. Jane Clemens, and his sister, Mrs. Pamela Moffett, in Saint Louis.[2] He contacted the Daily Alta California and convinced the newspaper in San Francisco to provide him with $1250 for expenses, and in return, he would send letters to the paper detailing his experiences from abroad.
The Quaker City left New York and its first port of call was the Azores. After boarding the steamship, Samuel Clemens and his fellow passengers headed for the continent of Europe. France became the first stop in Europe for the Quaker City and after France came Italy, then Greece. After Greece, Samuel Clemens headed for the Holy Land via Turkey and Beirut. Finally Samuel Clemens ended up in the Holy Land.[3]
Clemens wrote in great detail about streams filled with stones that could have been used for David's slingshot and landmarks from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to the well of Abraham. At the time of Samuel Clemens visit to Jerusalem, the city was under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Foreigners became welcomed visitors because the ruler, Sultan Abdulaziz, wanted a more western style of rule and changed his army to reflect his new western ideals. It was because of the Sultan's liberal philosophy that westerners became welcomed visitors. Clemens departed the Holy Land and visited ancient Egypt and then Morocco. Boarding the Quaker City and heading for home, Samuel Clemens had one last stop before reaching New York, Bermuda.
Bermuda, home of the infamous Bermuda triangle, was an unwelcome stop for Samuel Clemens. He complained that all the passengers wanted to go home, but since Bermuda was an obligatory stop the passengers had no choice in the matter. He even hoped that New York would have quarantined Bermuda from the passengers. Finally, Samuel Clemens was on his way to New York and familiar territory.[4]
The trip lasted five months, from June 8, 1867 to November 19, 1867, and Samuel Clemens sent at least fifty letters to the Daily Alta California[5]. In his book The Innocents Aboard, he incorporated ten to twelve letters and everything else was newly written for the book.[6] Samuel Clemens went on to write other books such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
When writing The Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain was not yet married to his wife Olivia. Clemens first became aware of Olivia while on board the Quaker City. He met Charles Langdon, the brother of Olivia, on board ship and first saw her in the form of an ivory miniature in her brother's stateroom, while the ship was docked at the Bay of Smyrna (now known as the Gulf of Izmir).[7]
However, Clemens met Olivia, in New York City, in December, 1867, after being invited to dinner at the Saint Nicholas Hotel. Clemens accompanied Olivia to a reading of Charles Dickens, being held at the Steinway Hall.[8] Clemens, while being engaged to Olivia, started to receive proofs of The Innocents Abroad. Olivia Langdon would read the proofs and then edit them. She would continue to edit proofs for her husband until within three or four months of her death. Clemens believed that his wife had the ability to judge his writings for weaknesses and strengths. Olivia would strike out any sentence that needed modification or expurgation. Later Olivia would read the manuscripts to the children for their opinions.[9]
In 1867, during the time Samuel Clemens toured the Holy Land events occurred that would change the world as we know it. Otto von Bismark would lead a movement to unite the German States. On 29 March 1867, Britain would enact the North American Act and unite Canada with a single capital in Ottawa, and on 30 March Tsar Alexander II would cede Alaska to the United States for a purchase price of seven million dollars which came to about two cents an acre. On 15 May the Emperor of Mexico, Maximillian would relinquish his power.[10] These events occurred in what is commonly referred to as Western Civilization.
In the Eastern world, the Ottoman Empire still ruled the area of the Holy Land. Ismail, the grandson of Muhammad Ali a great leader of Egypt, started costly public projects that would lead to the sale of stock in the Suez Canal to Britain because he needed outside monetary support for his projects. Japan would start the Meiji movement to modernize Japan and make it more Western. Leaders of the movement started to realize that if Japan did not modernize, they would perish as a nation. This movement was a result of Commodore Perry's trip to Japan and Perry's threat that if doors were not opened by choice, they would be opened by force. Imperialism became a dominant factor for European nations and the drive was on to gobble up all lands that were not held by other European nations, including the Far East. The cry of the day was the "White Man's Burden" , a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem by the same name. European nations believed it was their duty to bring prosperity and religion to other less fortunate nations.[11] Samuel Clemens went to the Holy Land during interesting times.
Samuel Clemens left at a time when a cholera epidemic was prevalent in New York and London. Because of the cholera epidemic certain ports were quarantined to visitors. Clemens and some of his fellow passengers on the Quaker City, decided to break quarantine. The ship was docked at Piraeus, the port city of Athens, Greece, and officials informed the captain that the ship needed to leave the harbor or go under an eleven day quarantine. To the dismay of some of the passengers, the captain left port. Clemens along with other passengers decided to break quarantine and see the sights of Athens, including the Acropolis. They succeeded and were not caught. It is a good thing that Clemens was not caught, because if he had, he would have been imprisoned and missed the ship to the Holy Land.[12]
In The Innocents Abroad Mark Twain compared Jerusalem and the area around Jerusalem to a desert waste land.[13] Other authors disagree with Mark Twain's assessment of the area. Yehoshua Ben- Arieh wrote that Palestine and especially Jerusalem, towards the end of the nineteenth century, started to grow and become the modern area that is known today.[14] Martin Gilbert, using accounts written during the time of Mark Twain's visit to Jerusalem, recounted that Jerusalem started a rebirth that changed a crumbling town to a modern city. The rebirth helped attract tourist from around the Muslim lands as well as the world.[15]
Mark Twain went into great detail when describing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. He spent eleven pages describing parts of the church.
Click here for Picture Fig. 1. Picture of the rotundas from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Photo courtesy of http://www.birzeit.edu/palnews/sepulchre/links .html
He mentions the rotunda, but fails to mention that it is about ready to fall because of its state of disrepair.[16] He did mention the disrepair rotunda in his notebook, but left it out of his book.[17] He did not mention the condition of the rotunda in his letters to the Daily Alta California, and he did not mention the reason for the omission in his autobiography. Therefore, it can only be speculated as to why the omission. There is no doubt that the rotunda needed repair. The illustration above shows what the rotunda looked like in 1858 . The rotunda was in such a state of disrepair, at the time of Twain's visit, that scaffolding had to be placed on the outside to keep the rotunda from falling in.[18] It is a good thing Mark Twain arrived in Jerusalem in 1867 rather than 1868, otherwise he would not have been able to write about the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in such detail, because a fire broke in 1868 and the church was closed to the public.
In his discussion of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Twain makes an error. Twain refers to Godfrey of Bouillion as King Godfrey of Jerusalem.[19] It can be understood why there is confusion on the subject. Godfrey of Bouillion headed the First Crusade and conquered Jerusalem, along with his men. Godfrey did receive a title for his conquest of Jerusalem, but people disagree as to what the exact title was , and how Godfrey came by the title. One historian said that Godfrey took the title of "Defender of the Holy Sepulchre." Godfrey of Bouillion was reported to have said the only king of Jerusalem should be Jesus Christ.[20]
Another accountant of this event believes that Godfrey's gesture was merely symbolic. Previous to the conquest of Jerusalem, the Greek Orthodox faction had little to do with the Roman Catholic Church (the Latin church), because the Greek Church and the Roman Church had a schism over the matter of celibacy for priest. This schism caused such a rift that it continued animosities between the churches. Godfrey did not want to perpetuate this animosity by becoming a Latin king in a Greek community and chose the title of "Defender of the Holy Sepulchre." Godfrey ruled as a king, but did not take the title as a king.[21]
Be that as it may, Clemens showed a fondness for Godfrey not only in his book, but also in his notebook and letters. In his notebook, he often used only a few words or symbols to describe an event or place. However, in his notebook he devoted a full sentence to Godfrey and parenthetically enclosed the word genuine.[22] This could be interpreted as Clemens doubting the authenticity of other items he viewed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, because he failed to write anything other than a short description of other items he saw in the church. Unlike the damaged rotunda, he did not omit observations about Godfrey in his letters to the Daily Alta California. Except for some minor changes and deletions, the letter sent to the newspaper was virtually unchanged in the released version of the book.[23] The changes are perfunctory, in that they merely change wording, but not intent. Since Olivia edited the book, she probably felt the changes made the book easier to read. King Richard, the lionhearted, went from being gorgeous to great and the times went from being knightly to old. The removal of flowery words did not impact the book, but instead made it easier to read for the general public.
Prior to writing The Innocents Abroad, Clemens wrote his observations of the Holy Land in his notebook. The area of the notebook dealing with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre takes up one page. It has a short sequences of words, except for the Godfrey annotation, it is as though Clemens was trying to make notes that would jog his memory later. However, it is interesting to note that of the two notebooks reviewed there are some inconstancies. In Albert Bigelow Paine's version, repairing of the dome, and Maximilians [sic] gift are missing.[24] These phrases are in the version edited by Fredrick Anderson, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson.
In the preface of Anderson's edited book, he states that Paine was the official biographer and editor of Clemens, and suggests that Paine may have been biased in his editing, because Paine was a close friend of Clemens. Therefore, Paine would not have done anything that would have shed an unfavorable light on the author. In Paine's preface, he mentions that Clemens's works were edited by his wife and others. He also mentions that Clemens may have been inconstant in his works, but only a dullard is constant, and inconsistency is a major attribute of a god. By his own words, Paine has a high opinion of Clemens and would not edit any works by him in such a manner that would unfavorable to him.[25]
As mentioned earlier, Clemens used from six to ten letters for the book. The letter numbered forty-six, sent to Daily Alta California, was used in the chapter of the book describing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.[26] The main difference between the book and the letter is when the author writes about Adam. Adam goes from being called "old Adam" in the letter to "Adam himself" in the book. What was part of a paragraph dealing with how the writer shed a tear when he realized that Adam died too soon, because he missed the invention of the telegraph, locomotive, and the Paris Exposition, in the letter. However, in the book the author wept fountains of tears over the knowledge that his ancestor, Adam, did not live long enough to see the author's birth. He did admit that Adam was in a better place. The original letter had a more sarcastic overtone when describing modern inconveniences, such as paying three dollars a dozen to have shirts washed. The book had a more reverent tone, because the loss of Adam is the world's eternal gain.[27] The changes from the letter to the book can be attributed to Olivia's editing abilities. Clemens biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine, believed the true Mark Twain had been restricted by his editors and one of those editors was Olivia. He believed that Clemens's work suffered as a result of the editing. He also admits that left unchecked, Clemens's work might suffer from his banal sense of humor. Therefore Clemens's works were changed in order not to offended anyone.[28]
Mark Twain wrote his autobiography, that the book, The Innocents Abroad, was almost not printed. The American Publishing House thought the book was too provocative and did not want to publish the book. The publisher did not want to publish the book, because Twain's book had humorous characters, and the publishing house had never published this kind of book before. Twain compared the directors of the company to "staid old fossils." Twain went to Hartford and told the publisher, Mister Drake, that he had an obligation to publish the book, and if the book was not published, he would sue the publisher for breach of contract. The publisher's initial release was only six hard bound copies. Those books sold quickly and the publisher realized that the book should be released again with a larger quantity available. If Mark Twain had not been persistent, The Innocents Abroad may never have been published.[29]
Click here for Picture Fig. 2. This map shows the journey by Mark Twain on the ship Quaker City, from New York to Jerusalem and back. The trip includes stops at the Azores, Europe and other Middle Eastern countries. The map is through the courtesy of http://etest.virginia.edu/railton/innocent/iamaphp.html.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ben- Arieh, Yehoshua. Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Gefen Publishing, 1993.
Castleden, Rodney. World History: A Chronological Dictionary of Dates New York: Shooting Star Press Inc, 1994.
"Church of the Holy Sepulchre." [http://jeru.huji.ac.il/ef31.html]
Duckett, Margaret. Mark Twain and Bret Harte. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.
Gilbert, Martin. Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City. New York: Viking, 1985.
"The Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem - Historical Photographs, part 1." [http://www.birzeit.edu/palnews/sepulchre/links. html].
McKay, John P, Bennett D Hill, and John Buckler. A History of World Societies, 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996.
Rashi. Translated by Maurice Liber Szold. Jewish Publication Society, 1906.
"Reporting the Holy Land Excursion." [http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/innocent/altahome.html].
Salsbury, Edith Colgate, ed. Susy and Mark Twain. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1965.
"Twain, Mark." Infomedia 2 Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Softkey:
Infomedia 2, 1996.
Twain, Mark. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. ed. by Charles Neider. London: Chatto & Windus, 1960.
________. The Innocents Abroad. Vol. 2, New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1911.
________. The Innocents Abroad. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958.
________. The Innocents Abroad. New York: Signer Classic, 1966.
________. The Autobiography of Mark Twain. ed. Albert Bigelow Paine New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1935.
________. Mark Twain's Notebook. ed. Albert Bigelow Paine New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1935.
________. Mark Twain's Notebook and Journals. eds. Frederick Anderson, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975.
________. Traveling with the Innocents Abroad, ed. Daniel Morley McKeithan. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1958.
