A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.
― Ursula K. Le Guin
Mark Twain, who read widely, was passionately interested in the problems of style; the mark of the strictest literary sensibility is everywhere to be found in the prose of Huckleberry Finn . . . He is the master of the style that escapes the fixity of the printed page, that sounds in our ears with the immediacy of the heard voice, the very voice of unpretentious truth.
Lionel Trilling, “Mark Twain’s Colloquial Prose Style”, from The Liberal Imagination, 1950
Twain was often asked for advice on the art and craft of writing. Sometimes he responded seriously, sometimes not. Here’s a piece of writing advice on from a letter he wrote on 20 March 1880 to a student named D.W. Bowser:
“I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English—it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don’t let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.”
I often tell my editing clients one of my favorite pieces of advice he gave. Twain famously said:
Bonus: “Give A Lick: Literary Postage Stamps” information for you philatelists!
Mark Twain 44¢
(1835-1910)
Issue Date: June 25, 2011
City: Hannibal, MO
Quantity: 50,000,000
Mark Twain is the 27th honoree in the Literary Arts series. “Our literary tribute this year rightfully honors Mark Twain, author of one of the greatest novels in American literature and the man whom William Faulkner called ‘the first truly American writer,’ said Postal Service Board of Governors member James H. Bilbray. “Mark Twain was a rarity, as he was one of the first writers to exploit the vernacular voice in his books, using the speech of common Americans,” Bilbray said.
Samuel Clemens’ family moved to the banks of the mighty Mississippi River when he was just a child. Clemens developed a love for the river that would stay with him his entire life.
As a young man, Clemens met a steamboat pilot named Horace Bixby. That’s when he decided to learn the craft, becoming one of the best pilots on the river.
As an author, Clemens took his pen name from his experiences on the water. The Mississippi River is difficult to navigate. To “mark twain” meant the water had been measured and was a safe depth. In 1863, Clemens began writing as Mark Twain.
If it had not been for the Civil War, Twain may have remained a pilot who occasionally wrote newspaper articles. But most business travel stopped along the Mississippi during these years, so Twain went back to writing. His humorous stories of life on the river were a hit with readers then and remain popular today.
In 2010, the first volume of Twain’s autobiography was published. It was his wish that it not be released until 100 years after his death so that he might speak his “whole frank mind.” The volume offers a glimpse into the real Samuel Clemens – a man with strong political and social views who nevertheless entertained millions with riveting tales of life on the Mississippi.
More on the “Give A Lick: Literary Postage Stamp” Series
Dorothy Parker and John Steinbeck
Flannery O’Connor and Ralph Ellison
James Thurber and Ogden Nash
Bonus: James Thurber Cartoon
