In Mark
Twain I found the very man I had expected to see--a flower of the
wilderness, tinged with the colour of the soil, the man of thought
and the man of action rolled into one, humorist and hard-worker,
Momus in a felt hat and jack-boots. In the reporter of the
'Territorial Enterprise' I became introduced to a Californian
celebrity, rich in eccentricities of thought, lively in fancy,
quaint in remark, whose residence upon the fringe of civilization
had allowed his humour to develop without restraint, and his speech
to be rarely idiomatic."
Under the influence of the example of the proprietors of the
'Enterprise', strict stylistic disciplinarians of the Dana school of
journalism, Clemens learned the advantages of the crisp, direct style
which characterizes his writing. As a reporter, he was really
industrious in matters that met his fancy; but "cast-iron items"--for he
hated facts and figures requiring absolute accuracy--got from him only
"a lick and a promise.
Pages:
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60