"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare."

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Twain Speaks from Beyond the Grave

The New Yorker has published the rare Mark Twain essay "The Privilege of the Grave" in this week's issue. Written by Twain in 1905 (five years before his death), it has not seen the light of day until now. The essay is part of UC-Berkeley's Mark Twain archive.

Here's a snippet:

"We have charity for what the dead say. We may disapprove of what they say, but we do not insult them, we do not revile them, as knowing they cannot now defend themselves. If they should speak, what revelations there would be!"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Twain Essay that's in the New Yorker is actually an excerpt from a collection of 24 unpublished pieces that will be published next April. It's called WHO IS MARK TWAIN. You can check it out and even get a digital version of it at http://harperstudioekit.com/books/whoismarktwain/index.php

B-Sol said...

Thanks for the info!