h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Was 92 dollars a fortune back then? What was in his sandwiches? Will he get with Cherry? Or Honey? Why is November such a short month?

That was a reference to a very pretentious article about 'Huckleberry Finn' that was all the rage in the English Department in the 1970s.

92 dollars wasn't a great fortune, but it was a pretty good grubstake for an orphan at the time. I'm going by Andrew Carnegie. In his autobiography, he tells how he saved enough money to help his parents get out of debt in the 1850s.

A family friend, a widow, lent them $200 from her life's savings to get passage to America in 1848. Of course, they couldn't stand it until they paid her back. They were Scots - being in debt like to killed them with worry.

As a telegraph boy, Andy, who was about 13 when he started, made 10 cents every time he delivered a telegram that was more than a mile from the Point. The other boys used these windfall dimes (10 cents) to buy treats, and they thought he was cheap because he wouldn't buy a round of sweets. But Andy was saving.

When he had 10 dimes, he'd get a dollar coin and put it in the sock. When he had 10 dollars, he'd get a 10-dollar gold piece. Finally, he had enough to retire his parents' debt.

Oh, and I forgot to ask Mrs Johnston what was in those sandwiches.

You forgot? Pah! No dedication to your craft! I'll be forever wondering...

Great stuff DG, have enjoyed this month.

Thanks! It's been fun, hasn't it?

I want to know what happens to Jim in Pittsburgh.

There's one more chapter.

I can imagine Mark Twain rewriting "Huckleberry Finn" as the story of two gay guys on a raft. He enjoyed rattling people's chains.

But try as I might, I can find no references to gay characters in his works, or to the possibility that Twain was gay or bisexual himself. If he was, he hid it well.

If he was going to address the subject of homosexuality, it would likely have been in either "Letters from the earth," or in his autobiography, which he wanted printed 100 years after his death. Not all sections of the autobiography had been published at the time I read the first installment. Maybe there's material there that I haven't gotten to yet.

" it was not until 2010, in the 100th anniversary year of Twain's death, that the first volume of a comprehensive collection, compiled and edited by The Mark Twain Project of the Bancroft Library at University of California, Berkeley, was published."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autobiography_of_Mark_Twain

Ah, there are three volumes in total. They run to 2,318 pages, and should be available online.

But it would take a lot of reading to find out his views on homosexuality, if indeed he expresses any.

" there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress." [Twain]

<laugh.

So Jim had the answer to the Question of life the universe and everything in his hands and then someone goes and gives him 50 dollars to ruin it!

I enjoyed just about everything I read by Mark twain.

Having said that, I wonder what I missed by not reading everything he wrote.