The Panic of 1893 began with European banks worrying about a coup and wheat crop failure in
Argentina. Within a very short period of time, the panic had spread to the
United States, and a severe depression began. Stock prices collapsed, more than
500 U.S. banks closed, farms were abandoned, and more than 15,000 businesses
failed. The effects didn’t occur overnight, but they happened fairly rapidly.
One of the
businesses that eventually failed was the Charles Webster publishing firm. It
was owned by Mark Twain. Twain desperately sought to keep the business afloat,
while at the same time investing heavily in a linotype machine that would have
brought a fortune had it worked. It didn’t. Twain and his family lost nearly everything
and he was left heavily in debt, a debt his wife insisted that he pay.
As popular
historian recounts in Chasing
the Last Laugh: Mark Twain’s Raucous and Redemptive Round-the-World Comedy Tour,
Twain did the only thing he knew to do, the thing he had come to intensely
dislike. He went on the lecture circuit. In fact, he went on the global lecture
circuit.
The itinerary
took Twain, his wife Livy, and their daughter Clara (two other daughters stayed
in New York) first across the northern United States to Seattle, and by boat to
the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), India, South
Africa, and then England. The trip took close to a full year: Twain spoke
hundreds of times, occasionally to half-filled auditoriums but more often to
houses so packed that extra engagements had to be scheduled.
The tour was a
moneymaking event, to be sure, but it became something of a triumph for Twain
the writer and speaker and Twain the man.
The tour has
always been covered in other biographies, but not to the detail Zacks includes.
And the story is in both the overview and the details – the overlay of late 19th
century imperialism, the British Raj in India reaching its apogee, the stark
realities of race in South Africa, the responses of the audiences, the specific
stories Twain told at each of the performances, how the newspapers covered him
and his stories, what played well, and what didn’t.
This could get
tedious, but in Zacks’ hands it becomes rich and illuminating. He tells a
wonderful story, pulling from the correspondence of Twain, the family, friends
and relatives, and robber baron H.H. Rogers, who did more than anyone else (including
Twain) to extricate the author from his legal and financial ordeals.
 |
| Richard Zacks |
Zacks is the
author of a number popular histories, including History
Laid Bare (1995); An
Underground Education
(1999); The
Pirate Hunter
(2003); The
Pirate Coast (2006);
and Island
of Vice (2012). He’s
also been a freelance journalist, writing for such publications as The Atlantic and ESPN.
Chasing the Last Laugh is a fascinating account of a major
American author who stared financial (and social) ruin in the face, and
ultimately didn’t blink. And managed to entertain a lot of people along the
way.
Top photograph: The frontispiece of Following
the Equator, the book Twain wrote
after he concluded his around-the-world speaking tour.
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