UPDATE: 17 January 2006
Mark
Twain:
The Founding Father of Modern Earthroaming
Fall/Winter 2003-2004
Fall is such a wonderful time to travel. The maddening crowds have dissipated and the oppressive summer heat is past. Here on Florida's Emerald Coast, it is the time of year when the locals reclaim the beaches and restaurants; we can now enjoy the sound of the surf, cool evening air, quiet walks along the beach, and the best tables at any of our fine seafood restaurants. The scene brings to mind a picture I stumbled across recently of Mark Twain on a Bermuda beach in 1908.
THE
FOUNDING FATHER OF MODERN EARTHROAMING
The
great pioneer of modern earthroaming, Mark Twain, was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in
Hannibal, Missouri USA way back in 1835. While it was not uncommon for a young
man of his day to move hundreds or thousands of miles from home to seek his
fortune in America's untamed west, Mark Twain was unique. He left home at
sixteen to find his fortune in the wilds of the newly organized Nevada Territory
- a land of rugged, mountainous terrain, rustic cabins built from hand-hewn
logs, massive herds of buffalo, gold miners,
ranchers, cowboys, gunslingers and native Americans. What made him different
from his peers is that he didn't settle down out west - he went on to travel the
world.
Traveling as we do today is a uniquely modern experience. In the 19th century, leisure travel was virtually unheard of to all but a handful of the wealthiest people on earth. But Twain was a pioneer - neither wealthy nor a royal - he was one of the earliest journalists to report from the field. He held positions with papers in several US cities before his essays on a tour of the Holy Land were compiled into his first book, "The Innocents Abroad". Two years later he published a second book called "Roughing It" with tales of his less genteel days out west. Although today, he is best known for his fictional works (such as "Huckleberry Finn" and "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer") he made a name for himself as a travel writer.
Twain went on to live so much of his life abroad that its hard to say where he would have called home. He married a New Englander and together they raised an earthroaming family. The Twains had homes at various times in Germany, Connecticut and Bermuda - and spent months at a time traveling across Europe and northern Africa - yet Twain once said that he felt as much at home in Britain as any place on earth.
Mark Twain's astute observations on travel and the obstacles of learning to communicate in a foreign language continue to amuse readers today as they did 100+ years ago. He was truly the founding father of modern earthroaming.
Kim Price, editor-in-chief