twain in England

America's Greatest Anglophile

Our kindred blood and our common language, our kindred religion and political liberty, make us feel nearer to England than to other nations, and render us more desirous of standing well there than with foreign nationalities that are foreign to us in all particulars. –Mark Twain’s preface to the English in The New Pilgrim’s Progress

 

Mark Twain can easily be labeled as a great Anglophile.  His love for English culture and country began with his first trip in 1872 and continued for the rest of his life.  Twain approved of British culture because he found the stereotypes associated with the English appealing.  This was partly because of how they contrasted with American culture, and also because he enjoyed the company and the ways of the English upper-class, who took him under their wing.  He also fell in love with the English countryside, writing in one of his short stories that, “England is the most beautiful of all countries.” As a man who loved history and tradition, in England he found a country rich in both.  Upon returning from his first visit, he continually praised the English and their ways in public. He even wrote the article “British Benevolence” for the Tribune, advocating for Americans to develop an establishment akin to the London Humane Society. Between the beautiful countryside, impressing establishments and traditions, and his embracement by the upper-class, Twain felt he belonged in England.

 

God knows I wish we had some of England’s reverence for the old & great.–Twain

 

 

These English men & women take a body right into the inner sanctuary, as it were—& when you have broken bread & eaten salt with them once it amounts to friendship….In about 4 weeks here, one learns to quit questioning people’s motives & trying to hunt out slights.  He finds that these folks do not doubt each other’s truth, & that it does not occur to them to ascribe ill motives to each other.  Of course this is by no means universal, but it amounts to the rule, I think.—Twain

 

Lecturing in London

 

Twain probably gave little to no consideration to the likelihood that British readers found his humor attractive because it was idiosyncratically American, which partly meant unsophisticated and exotic.  His bushy hair and mustache, his sharp nose and bright eyes, especially when perched on a giant frog in a caricature published in a widely distributed London magazine, were widely recognized throughout England. –Fred Kaplan, The Singular Mark Twain

 

After Twain received many invitations to lecture in England, he finally chose to lecture in London because he and his family needed the money.  George Dolby, who had managed Dickens’ tours, organized Twain’s lecture series in England.  Twain got such an adrenaline rush from the lecture series that each day he had a performance he played billiards, took walks, and engaged in conversation to work off his anxieties.  As the lecture series progressed, rave reviews and growing audiences increased his confidence.  He was especially praised for his Roughing It lecture, which came to be known as a very humorous performance.

 

Twain's Travels

 

About one thing there is no question whatever, & that is, one musn’t tackle England in print with a mere superficial knowledge of it.  I am by long odds the most widely known & popular American author among the English & the book will be read by pretty much every Englishman—therefore for my own sake it must not be a poor book.—Twain in a letter to his wife Livy, 1872

 

Twain first realized his celebrity in England when he first traveled to London in September 1872.  When he docked at Liverpool that year he felt more at ease in the country when he saw passengers on the train to London reading his book The Innocents Abroad.  Twain originally went to England in 1872 to gather materials for a new book he planned to write on England and the English.  However, he struggled to find the right sort of material, as Fred Kaplan notes in the biography The Singular Mark Twain:

 

He tried, though, to “see as many people” as he could, rather than sights.  “If I could take notes of all I hear said, I should make a most interesting book.”  Local customs, as always, intrigued him.  The more he liked England and the English, though, the less sustainable seemed the kind of book he had intended to write.

 

At the time of this first visit Twain had also been having troubles with piracies of his writings, especially by the publisher John Camden Hotten.  Literary piracy was in fact quite common in those days, and remained so until the International Copyright Act of 1891.  Ironically, many of these piracies actually contributed to Twain’s fame.  Still, Twain’s unhappiness over the piracies of his works led to his pursuance of a copyright in England, and his partnership with the Routledge publishing firm.  It was with Routledge that he was truly taken into British society and introduced to the upper-classes he so enjoyed and admired. 
  

Twain’s relationship with England continued for the rest of his life.  He even lived there at various times with his family, for both personal and professional reasons.  When Twain received an Oxford University honorary doctoral degree in June 1907, it was symbolic of the respect both Twain and American literature had garnered in England.