Roughing It

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Roughing It
Roughing it 1st edition book cover
Author	Mark Twain
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Travel literature
Publisher	American Publishing Company
Publication date	1872^[1]
Media type	Print
Pages	607
Preceded by	The Innocents Abroad
Followed by	The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

Roughing It is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature written by American humorist Mark Twain. It was written during 1870–71 and published in 1872 as a prequel to his first book Innocents Abroad. This book tells of Twain's adventures prior to his pleasure cruise related in Innocents Abroad.

Roughing It follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the Wild West during the years 1861–1867. After a brief stint as a Confederate cavalry militiaman (not included in the account), he joined his brother Orion Clemens, who had been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory, on a stagecoach journey west. Twain consulted his brother's diary to refresh his memory and borrowed heavily from his active imagination for many stories in the novel.

Roughing It illustrates many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to Salt Lake City, gold and silver prospecting, real-estate speculation, a journey to the Kingdom of Hawaii, and his beginnings as a writer.

In this memoir, readers can see examples of Twain's rough-hewn humor, which would become a staple of his writing in his later books, such as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

U.S. astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell read "Roughing It" aloud to pass the time aboard NASA's Gemini VII, a 14-day-long Earth orbital mission in December 1965. Borman recalls reading the book during an on-camera interview in the 1999 PBS-TV (USA) television program "Nova: To the Moon".

2002 movie adaptation

Based on Mark Twain's 1872 autobiographical novel, this made-for-cable film is presented in flashback form, as aged humorist Mark Twain (James Garner) is invited as the keynote speaker for the Bryn Mawr College graduation ceremonies of 1891. At first concerned that his reputation as a humorist will embarrass his daughter Susy (Jewel Staite), who is among the graduates, Twain decides to throw all caution to the winds by delivering an inspirational speech in which he recalls his own early days as a Missouri-bred greenhorn on the wild western frontier. Admitting that his recollections may stretch the truth a bit ("When I was younger, I could remember it, whether it happened or not"), Twain spins a tale of two brothers, Sam and Orion Clemens ("Sam Clemens" was of course, Twain's given name). Jealous over Orion's (Greg Spottiswood) appointment as secretary to the governor of the Nevada Territory, young Sam Clemens (Robin Dunne) insists on tagging along, but soon parts ways when he decides that nascent Carson City does not suit his desire for adventure. In search of fortune and his destiny, what ensues is an extended adventure which includes a rugged interlude digging for gold under the baleful eye of a brutal foreman (Eric Roberts); a wild card game during torrential rains; a bone-chilling winter; bandits and outlaws; along with an episode with Mr. Slade (Ned Beatty), a cruel man that's killed 26 men for petty reasons, and kept their ears as a "calling card". The cast also includes Jill Eikenberry as Twain's wife Livy and Adam Arkin as a "wild-eyed character" named Henry. Filmed in Calgary, the four-hour miniseries version of Mark Twain's Roughing It was presented by the Hallmark cable channel beginning March 16, 2002.

Notes

↑ Facsimile of the original 1st edition.

External links

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Roughing It

Roughing It at Project Gutenberg
Roughing It, audiobook from Librivox.
Roughing It, University of California Press, 2003.
Roughing It, text plus additional background material.
3 short radio episodes from Roughing It from California Legacy Project.

v t e Works by Mark Twain

Novels	The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss

Short stories	"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "General Washington's Negro Body-Servant" "My Late Senatorial Secretaryship" "Some Learned Fables for Good Old Boys and Girls" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Invalid's Story" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" "1601" "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "The Private Life of Adam and Eve"

Short story collections	Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Sketches The Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories The Curious Republic of Gondour and Other Whimsical Sketches The Washoe Giant in San Francisco

Plays	Is He Dead?

Essays	"The Awful German Language" "Advice to Youth" "English As She Is Taught" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "To My Missionary Critics" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "Queen Victoria's Jubilee" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth

Non-fiction	The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator What Is Man? Is Shakespeare Dead? Queen Victoria's Jubilee Autobiography of Mark Twain Mark Twain's Notebook King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire The Bible According to Mark Twain Christian Science

Speeches	Votes for Women

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