Wolfe Compares Thompson to Twain

In an interview with Time this week, popular novelist Tom Wolfe draws a parallel between Twain and another brilliant eccentric of more recent decades, Hunter S. Thompson:

"[Thompson] was the great comic writer of the 20th century. I really do consider Hunter as being in the tradition of Mark Twain. Gonzo journalism, as he called it, is exactly what Twain did in things like The Innocents Abroad. You do some reporting of what's actually there, but you also let your imagination free. You're not deceiving anybody because they know that's what you do."

Wolfe has long cited Thompson as a major influence. To read the entire "10 Questions" interview, go here.

Roughing It Anthologized in True Crime Collection

Harold Schechter's new volume, Murder Ink: A Killer Collection, is a "celebration" of 350 years worth of true-crime writing. It's one of non-fiction's most popular genres, and one that wasn't left untouched by Twain. That is why Schechter has included an excerpt from the author's famous travel tome, Roughing It.

In particular, the editor has selected Twain's description of the frontier violence in the Wild West that he encountered while traveling to Nevada with his brother. Specifically, the young Clemens was taken by the propensity of would-be gold miners to seek retribution with a pistol.

Murder Ink: A Killer Collection is available now from the Library of America.

The Wild Humorist of the Western Slope

Actor MacAvoy Layne will be performing his one-man show "Wild Humorist of the Western Slope, Mark Twain" at Taylor Creek, Nevada's Lake of the Sky Amphitheater, according to the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Layne has impersonated Twain at Taylor Creek in a wide variety of shows over the past two decades. This one in particular covers the author's adventures out West, which made up the bulk of his 1872 memoir, Roughing It. Most Twain enthusiasts will recall that much of those adventures took place in the then-territory of Nevada, particularly in the fledgling Carson City.

For more information on the show, call the Taylor Creek Visitor Center at (530) 543-2674.

Twain's Heaven on Earth

Dr. Sean Carey, a research fellow at London's Roehampton University, argued yesterday that the island nation of Mauritius should return to its previous use of a famous Mark Twain quote as the slogan for its crucial tourism industry.

The quote in question comes from Twain's 1897 South Pacific travel tome Following the Equator, in which he declared, "Mauritius was made first, then heaven" (a line which he actually quotes from someone else in the book.) Writing in Mauritius' newsspaper L'Expresse, Carey deplores the recent switch to the much duller and vaguer slogan, "An unforgettable experience."

No reason is given for the change. But for Mauritius, located off the eastern coast of Africa near Madagascar, tourism is clearly of major importance, so maybe someone should listen to Dr. Carey.

Twain's Jerusalem Hotel at Last Identified

As part of the famous international journeys which make up Twain's groundbreaking 1869 travelogue The Innocents Abroad, the author spent several days in Jerusalem, becoming the 19th century's most well-known Holy Land tourist in the process. Yet for years, the location of the "Mediterranean Hotel" at which Twain stayed during his time in the city has remained a mystery. Until now.

Haaretz.com reported yesterday that researcher Yoni Shapira, archaeologist Prof. Shimon Gibson and Rupert Chapman, secretary of Britain's Palestine Exploration Fund, have successfully identified the present-day Jerusalem hotel now known as the Wittenberg House, as the very same building that was originally named the Mediterranean Hotel when it was built in 1866, just one year before Mr. Clemens checked in.

Back then, the hotel was a hot spot for noted American and European luminaries looking to spend some time in Jerusalem. Apparently, the name change occurred some 120 years ago, when one Moshe Wittenberg purchased the hotel from its original owner. At least one of the letters Twain compiled in putting together The Innocents Abroad was written during his stay there. You can bet the place is about to get a whole new influx of American tourists.

For more on the discovery, go here.