Ledger-Dispatch

By Scott Thomas Anderson (sanderson@ledger-dispatch.c= om)=20

In the 1880s, Mark Twain was a famous = writer in=20 the United States. However, his signature style was developed 20 = years=20 before when he was a young, struggling journalist wandering = between=20 Calaveras County and Sacramento. On Saturday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m. the = Sutter=20 Creek Theatre will have a Twain tribute starring actor Wendell=20 Martin.

Photo by: Courtesy to the Ledger=20 Dispatch
It's fall in the sleepy town = of Sutter=20 Creek. Winds roll down from the mountains and the hills are still gently = cooked=20 in a brown whisky burn. It's a rustic vision. It's a doorway back to the = Gold=20 Country avenues Mark Twain wandered when he was young.

On = Saturday, Nov.=20 8, actor and Amador City resident Wendell Martin will step into Twain's = shadow=20 under the lights of the Sutter Creek Theatre. Dawning a crass, cagey = voice and=20 half-smoked cigar, he'll brag about youthful vandals and whispering = rivers.=20 He'll manipulate nostalgia with the same power that bred a literary rock = star=20 for the ages - an icon whose silver hair and savage whit are permanently = embedded in the American psyche.

But when Twain came to = Angels Camp=20 in 1865, he'd never have imagined such fortunes lay ahead. Back then, = people=20 knew him only as a shifty schemer and hellacious drunk. He traveled to=20 California to experience the wild Sacramento Valley-what he called the = land of=20 "gold, whiskey, fights, and fandangos" - but times were tough. =

As a=20 writer, Twain lacked an identity. He loathed convention, and the bland = literary=20 standards of the day were strangling his energy and optimism. In = Virginia City,=20 Nev., the boredom had nearly been fatal. During his first stint as a = reporter,=20 Twain had fabricated a news story as a prank, enraged the community, = been=20 challenged to a duel and finally skipped town.

Fishing for work = between=20 Sacramento and San Francisco, he found himself in a creative no man's = land,=20 hating the labored eloquence and superficial refinement that marked = "great=20 writing," yet having no better vision of his own. Now 29, he was = increasingly=20 depressed.

Salvation came from a friend smashing a glass pitcher = over a=20 San Francisco bartender's head. Fearing the law, Twain (and his pal) = quickly cut=20 out of town again. He drifted on to Calaveras County. Here, while = patrolling the=20 grungy mining hamlets near Jackass Hill, he heard a whopper of a tale = about a=20 corrupt frog race. Suddenly he had a radical idea about how to bring the = story=20 to life.

For decent society, California was the end of the world, = but the=20 rhythms of its rough second-class culture were creeping into Twain's = voice. His=20 isolation here had galvanized him. He'd survived the dim card rooms of=20 Sacramento and the muddy slopes of Angels Camp on his own terms, and now = he'd=20 approach the craft of storytelling similarly. Years of resentment = festered as he=20 carefully lined his victims against the wall: the highbrow language, the = trustworthy narrator, the dignified subject matter. These were the first = casualties in Twain's new war on American style.

When Twain = finished "The=20 Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," he'd happily ignored every = codified rule of writing. Odd and irreverent, the story made a deadpan = mockery=20 of pretension and a virtue of pointlessness. Twain sent the piece off to = a New=20 York magazine and got it published right away. Then something curious = happened.=20 The story started jumping, like a Calaveras bullfrog, across the country = from=20 one magazine to another. Suddenly there was a buzz about a young = humorist named=20 Mark Twain.

But Twain wasn't hearing the applause inside the = bottle he'd=20 crawled into. Poor communications and his own restlessness kept him in = the dark=20 about his own fame. While New York elites were toasting his first = success, Twain=20 was alone in bars toasting his own demons. Whiskey raging in his = bloodstream, he=20 was crashing in pool halls and smoking enough cigars to kill the monster = Oriental roaches that holed up beside him. His mood swings returned with = a=20 vengeance. He teetered between episodes of hot-blooded rage and = monumental=20 laziness. His hair and clothing were often a savage mess, and after his=20 night-long benders he looked like the devil incarnate.

Later, = when=20 Twain's future father-in-law, Jervis Langdon, asked for letters of = reference=20 from the young man's "friends" out west, he got back a steady stream of = hate=20 mail, informing him that Twain was a loser, a nasty drunk and a = first-rate=20 scoundrel born to swing on the end of a noose.

Finally, in the = same week=20 that Twain was arrested for public drunkenness, reports began trickling = into the=20 Sacramento Valley about his smashing success on the East Coast. Among = those=20 assuring him in letters that the "Jumping Frog" story had made him a = celebrity=20 was his mother. Twain wrote her back, claiming his disbelief that New = Yorkers=20 were raving about such "a villainous back-woods sketch." But, in truth, = he had=20 the opposite reaction - his renegade stylist's instincts finally had = been=20 validated by a home run.

Twain's national triumph helped = Californians see=20 him in a different light. So recently regarded as a hack journalist and=20 foul-mouthed inebriate, he'd suddenly become a literary force. But it = did little=20 to quell his rabid depression. For one thing, he was still dead broke. = Though=20 his story had been reprinted across the country, this was an age without = copyright enforcement; only two magazines chose to pay him for it. = Things seemed=20 hopeless. He tried a few times to kill himself.

Desperately in = need of=20 cash, Twain sobered up for a few days and landed a job as a travel = writer for=20 the Sacramento Union. He sailed to Honolulu in March 1866 and found = something=20 startling there: It seemed his "Jumping Frog" story had jumped half way = across=20 the Pacific Ocean. Twain discovered he was a sensation throughout the = islands.=20 Only then, under palm trees and perfect breezes, did the depression = begin to=20 loosen its grip on him.

Days before leaving the islands, Twain = had=20 another stroke of luck: A handful of shipwreck survivors tumbled onto a = shore=20 near Honolulu. These sea-faring skeletons were all that remained of the = crew of=20 the Hornet, an American clipper that had burned at sea some 43 harrowing = days=20 earlier. Twain knew it would be a national story.

That night, = the=20 Hornet's sun-baked castaways, who'd just spent six weeks paddling across = 4,000=20 miles of unforgiving ocean, saw a saddle-sore Twain carried in on a = stretcher to=20 interview them. Twain's coverage of the shipwreck was a harsh, immediate = epic,=20 and the biggest news story of the year. Once again, the name Mark Twain = was on=20 everybody's lips. When he returned to Sacramento to collect his wages, = the Union=20 editors slapped down a $300 bonus for putting their newspaper on the=20 map.

Sauntering back out into the city's shady streets, Twain = could hear=20 the nation calling him. More importantly, he now knew who he was: the = brash,=20 clever humorist of the West; the unapologetic trickster of tales both = real and=20 invented; the rambler with a knack for offending, a gift for = entertaining, and a=20 powerful talent for inspiring the imagination in ways that where wholly = new on=20 the American literary landscape.

An Evening with Mark = Twain=20

When: Saturday, Nov. 8 at 8 p.m.

Where: Sutter Creek = Theatre,=20 44 Main St., Sutter Creek

Tickets: $12 in advance, $14 the day of = the=20 show; available at www.sutter creektheatre.com

Scott Thomas = Anderson