Twain & Keller > Parallels Between the Two
Curated by Brent M. Colley, Heather Morgan and Lisa Burghardt

Twain and Keller had a Lot in Common:

1. Mark Twain was born two months pre-mature in the frontier town of Florida, Missouri. There was little hope of survival, let alone success. Helen Keller lost her vision and hearing at 19 months and thus she too had little hope for success.

Both “survived” and over came the great odds stacked against them to become successful Activists, Authors, Public Speakers and Celebrities.

2. Both lost their fathers at a young age. Twain's father died when he was 11 and Keller's father died when she was 16.

3. Over the course of her life Helen came to accept religious and political beliefs quite different from those of her family and friends. Helen Keller became a member of the Socialist Pary in 1909 and by 1912, she had become a national voice for socialism and working class solidarity. These beliefs and causes differed grately from her teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy's views. It was Anne's husband, John Macy, a lecturer and radical journalist, who introduced and taught Helen about socialist ideals. Throughout her adult life Keller campaigned for women's suffrage, labor rights and other humanitarian issues.

In explaination for why she crusaded for these causes, she wrote, "I do not like this world as it is. I am trying to make it a little more as I would like to have it."

Twain was also a non-conformist when it came to politics and religion. In 1902, he confessed: "... I am a moralist in disguise; it gets me into heaps of trouble when I go thrashing around in political questions." And he spoke the truth about that, it did get him in heaps of trouble and he did raise some eyebrows speaking out against the United States new thirst for global conquests. Twain was an anti-imperialist, serving as vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League (which had a good number of Socialist members) the last decade of his life. He was opposed to U.S. intervention in the Philippines, explaining to the New York Herald in 1900 that, "We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. . . . I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."

In pointing out the issues he had with both the Democratic and Republican parties, his views of partisanship ring true over a 100 years after they were spoken:

"Look at the tyranny of party -- at what is called party allegiance, party loyalty -- a snare invented by designing men for selfish purposes -- and which turns voters into chattels, slaves, rabbits, and all the while their masters, and they themselves are shouting rubbish about liberty, independence, freedom of opinion, freedom of speech, honestly unconscious of the fantastic contradiction; and forgetting or ignoring that their fathers and the churches shouted the same blasphemies a generation earlier when they were closing their doors against the hunted slave, beating his handful of humane defenders with Bible texts and billies, and pocketing the insults and licking the shoes of his Southern master."

As for his religious views, he stated in 1906 that “(my Autobiography) will make a stir when it comes out.” (100 years after his death.)

In religion and politics people's beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.”

- Autobiography of Mark Twain, 2010

Twain was well educated on the topic of religion; all religions. He traveled the world, seeing a total of 35 countries and taking note of the religions practiced in all of them.

"Monarchies, aristocracies, and religions....there was never a country where the majority of the people were in their secret hearts loyal to any of these institutions."

- Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger

4. They both dealt with people who wished to take advantage of them. "As she had her entire life, the luminous Helen inspired intrigues and power struggles, as her acquaintances and advisers fought with one another to gain possession of her."

The same can be said for Twain who was swindled from his riches a number of times over the course of his lifetime, and endured a painful “power struggle” between his daughters and business associates in the final year of his life.

5. Both were animal lovers: Helen loved dogs and Twain loved cats.

Helen Keller had a lifelong love of dogs and always had at least one or two by her side. When she was a young girl, she even tried finger spelling, her only way of communicating, into her dogs' paws.

Although Helen had many dogs throughout her lifetime, she never used any of them as dog guides, as many blind people do today. But as she made her way through her gardens later in life, several dogs could always be seen at her side.

Some of these dogs included a Great Dane named Belle, a Scottie named Darkie, German Shepherds, Collies, and even a Dachshund named Sunshine. Helen's love for animals was so great that during many of her trips, pictures were taken of Helen and many different types of animals in countries all over the world.

Twain loved cats so much that he altered the rules of his favorite game to accommodate their presence:

From The Boys' Life of Mark Twain by Albert Bigelow Paine: "...Of course there were several cats at Stormfield, and these really owned the premises. The kittens scampered about the billiard-table after the balls, even when the game was in progress, giving all sorts of new angles to the shots. This delighted him, and he would not for anything have discommoded or removed one of those furry hazards."

One of Twain's most popular quotes on cats:

"Of all God's creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat.
If man could be crossed with the cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat
."

 

6. Both traveled to 30+ foreign countries and had their books translated into foreign language editions.

 

7. They were both well traveled but both chose Fairfield County as their final homes.

During her lifetime, Helen Keller traveled the World (39 Countries Visited) and lived in many different places—Tuscumbia, Alabama; Cambridge and Wrentham, Massachusetts; Forest Hills, New York, but perhaps her favorite residence was her last, the house in Easton, Connecticut she called "Arcan Ridge."

The same can be said about Samuel L. Clemens. He too traveled the World (35 Countries Visited), lived in many places, and yet fell in love with the beauty of his final residence… Stormfield in Redding, Connecticut.

I was never in this beautiful region until yesterday evening. Miss Lyon and the architect built and furnished the house without any help or advice from me, and the result is entirely to my satisfaction.” “It is charmingly quiet here. The house stands alone, with nothing in sight but woodsy hills and rolling country.”

-Samuel L. Clemens letter to Dorothy Quick dated June 19, 1908

8. Both died of heart disease. Helen Keller lived at 163 Redding Road in Easton, Connecticut. She died in her sleep on June 1, 1968 at the age of 87. The cause of her death was arteriosclerosis heart disease (Twain died of Heart troubles too. His were tied to his life long smoking habit). Twain died in the twilight hours of April 21, 1910, at the age of 74.

9. Since their deaths, their names have lived on…

Eulogy by Senator J. Lister Hill of Alabama:

She will live on, one of the few, the immortal names not born to die. Her spirit will endure as long as man can read and stories can be told of the woman who showed the world there are no boundaries to courage and faith.”

Twain's note to a news reporter in 1897: "...the report of my death was an exaggeration." Has some truth in it to this day. Twain works, quotes and life story have remained relevant since his passing. In 1910, the first volume of his Autobiography was released with great success and most recently- to celebrate the 176th anniversary of Twain's birth Google painted its logo using its patented "Doodle" to render the world of Twain's Tom Sawyer, who famously cajoled friends to whitewash a fence for him.


This exhibit has been made possible by donations to the History of Redding website and the generous
assistance of Helen Selsdon, archivist at the American Foundation of the Blind in New York City.
Donations to AFB can be made online.

Our Next Panel highlights the final residences of Keller and Twain.