Letters from Hawaii contains a collection of letters Mark Twain wrote for a newspaper publication. From a long, turbulent journey to the island, to his encounters with the islanders and the myriad englishmen who have taken up residence on the island. These letters are sure to be an entertaining and well written account of the humours encounters and scenic adventures that Twain experienced on his journey to Hawaii.
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“Those who treat themselves to these blustery, spirited letters will experience a journey in every sense of the word…A reminder of why Twain’s legacy has endured.”
— Publishers Weekly
“The unmistakable touch of [Twain’s] comic genius can be seen, that sly alternation of hyperbole and deadpan understatement.”
— Wall Street Journal“An amalgam of workaday journalism, whimsy, shrewd and poetic observation, accurate commercial prophecy…and tongue-in-cheek tall tales.”
— Times Literary Supplement“Twain’s powers of observation and description are unsurpassed…a vivid picture of the life and scenery of these lovely islands.”
— Saturday ReviewBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), was born in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal on the west bank of the Mississippi River. He attended school briefly and then at age thirteen became a full-time apprentice to a local printer. When his older brother Orion established the Hannibal Journal, Samuel became a compositor for that paper and then, for a time, an itinerant printer. With a commission to write comic travel letters, he traveled down the Mississippi. Smitten with the riverboat life, he signed on as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot. After 1859, he became a licensed pilot, but two years later the Civil War put an end to the steam-boat traffic.
In 1861, he and his brother traveled to the Nevada Territory where Samuel became a writer for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and there, on February 3, 1863, he signed a humorous account with the pseudonym Mark Twain. The name was a river man’s term for water “two fathoms deep” and thus just barely safe for navigation.
In 1870 Twain married and moved with his wife to Hartford, Connecticut. He became a highly successful lecturer in the United States and England, and he continued to write.
Robin Field is the AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator of numerous audiobooks, as well as an award-winning actor, singer, writer, and lyricist whose career has spanned six decades. He has starred on and off Broadway, headlined at Carnegie Hall, authored numerous musical reviews, and hosted or performed on a number of television and radio programs over the years.