Among writers' names, theirs are two of the most famous to people in the U.S. -- Mark Twain and Charles Darwin. But how differently they are thought of: Twain as the grandfatherly humorist; Darwin as the trouble-causing scientist. When I was in elementary school, my grandmother was displeased that my school was named after the horror-story writer Edgar Allan Poe, but quite pleased when I moved to an elementary school named after the grandfatherly Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens). And we all know that any proposal to name a school after Charles Darwin would evoke controversy.The writers Twain and Darwin are also known for different genres of writing -- fiction and nonfiction. Different also are the ways that Nature is a part of their writings. Twain, even when writing about his experiences as a young man on the Mississippi, turned them into tall tales about the adventures of people. In contrast, even Darwin's reminiscences of his journey on the Beagle are strengthened by his scientist's eye for observation of Nature by itself, apart from people.
Despite their many differences, their lives as writers intersected (even if indirectly) in an entertaining incident related by Mark Twain in one of his public presentations. Twain tells first how he felt flattered when the president of Harvard College, Charles Eliot, who had visited Darwin, told Twain:
"Do you know that there is one room in Darwin's house,his bedroom, where the housemaid
is never allowed to touch two things?
One is a plant he is growing
and studying while it grows....
The other some books that lie on the night table
at the head of his bed. They are your books,
Mr. Clemens, and Mr. Darwin reads them every night
to lull him to sleep."
But Twain's inflated ego was punctured by a subsequent event that Twain also relates. He tells how, after Darwin died, Twain was visited by the Rev. Joseph Twichell, who he describes as "my oldest friend -- and dearest enemy on occasion." Twichell had been reading Darwin's Life and Letters, and opened it to show Twain a passage apparently explaining more fully why Twain's books were on that night table. As Twain tells it:
"Twichell ... said, 'Here, look at this letter from Mr. Darwin to Sir Joseph Hooker.'
What Darwin said -- I give the idea and not the very words -- was this:
I do not know whether I ought to have devoted my whole life to these drudgeries
in natural history and the other sciences [because]
while I may have gained in one way I have lost in another.
Once I had a fine perception and appreciation of high literature,
but in me that quality is atrophied. 'That was the reason,' said Mr. Twichell,
'he was reading your books.' "
What Darwin said -- I give the idea and not the very words -- was this:
I do not know whether I ought to have devoted my whole life to these drudgeries
in natural history and the other sciences [because]
while I may have gained in one way I have lost in another.
Once I had a fine perception and appreciation of high literature,
but in me that quality is atrophied. 'That was the reason,' said Mr. Twichell,
'he was reading your books.' "
It looks as if in this case, it was Darwin who had the last laugh. Or did he? It was Twain who was able to tell of the incidents, and thereby laugh at himself.
~ ~ ~
Do you have bedtime reading that helps you let go of the cares of the day? What is it?
(The incident and quotations are taken from What about Darwin?,
edited by Thomas F. Glick, © 2010, pp. 439-441. [emphasis added])
edited by Thomas F. Glick, © 2010, pp. 439-441. [emphasis added])
