Me - sitting awhile with Mark Twain
this past summer in Elmira, N.Y.
The New York Times, November 26, 1905
MARK TWAIN: A HUMORIST'S CONFESSION
On the Eve of His 70th Birth Anniversary He Admits He Never Did a Day's Work in His Life.
Whatever He Has Done, He Says, He Has Done Because It Was Play -- Sage Advice to Fellow Humorists and Others -- A Word in Defense of the English -- As to Summer Homes
"All I had to do was write a certain number of books and deliver a few hundred lectures. As for traveling about the country from one place to another for years - the nuisances of getting about and bad hotels and so on - those things are merely the incidents that every one expects to meet in life. The people who had to publish my books, the agents who had to arrange my lecture tours, the lawyers who had to draw up the contracts and other legal documents - they were the men who did the real work. My part was merely play. If it had been work I shouldn't have done it. I was never intended for work - never could do it - can't do it now - don't see any use in it."__________
I have only blogged because it was like play to me. It doesn't mean I'm not serious about my subject matter, but I would never have begun any of it if it hadn't been my passion.
Here's hoping you have found yours - and that it will always feel like play.
Mark Twain's birthday is coming soon. Samuel Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 when Halley's comet was in the sky.