Following the Equator
Following the Equator cover | |
Author | Mark Twain |
---|---|
Language | English |
Genre | Travel literature |
Publisher | American Publishing Company |
Publication date | 1897[1] |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | |
Pages | 718 |
Preceded by | Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc |
Followed by | A Dog's Tale |
Following the Equator (sometimes titled More Tramps Abroad) is a non-fiction social commentary in the form of a travelogue published by Mark Twain in 1897.
Twain was practically bankrupt in 1894 due to investing heavily into the failed Paige Compositor. In an attempt to extricate himself from debt of $100,000 (equivalent of about $2,975,000 in 2020) he undertook a tour of the British Empire in 1895 at age 60, a route chosen to provide numerous opportunities for lectures in English.
The first edition of this book was illustrated by Dan Beard, A.B. Frost, B.W. Clinedinst, Frederick Dielman, Peter Newell, F.M senior, C.H. Warren, A.G. Reinhart, F. Berkeley Smith, and C. Allan Gilbert, many of whom had previously worked with Twain. In England the book was published under the title More Tramps Abroad.
American songwriter Jimmy Buffett mentions the book in his songs “Take Another Road” and “That’s What Living Is To Me”.
Themes
Throughout the book, Twain uses the opportunity of visiting the various locations on his tour to espouse "perceptive descriptions and discussions of people, climate, flora and fauna, indigenous cultures, religion, customs, politics, food, and many other topics". The book contains a significant amount of social commentary, although much of it is done in a satirical manner.
Although this social commentary is the great import of the book, it is notable that Twain also included a number of fictional stories in the body of what is otherwise a non-fiction work. In particular, the story of how Cecil Rhodes made his fortune – by finding a newspaper in the belly of a shark – and the story of how a man named Ed Jackson made good in life out of a fake letter of introduction to Cornelius Vanderbilt, were anthologized in Charles Neider (ed) The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain, (Doubleday, 1957) where they are presented as fiction.
Notes
- ^ Facsimile of the original 1st edition.
References
- Twain, Mark (1897). Following the Equator - A journey around the world. Hartford and New York: American Publishing Co. and Doubleday & McLure Co. – via Internet Archive.
External links
- Twain's Notes, Mock-up of Title Page, Dedication of Following the Equator Shapell Manuscript Foundation
- Olivia Langdon Clemens to Publisher Walter Bliss on Success of Following the Equator[permanent dead link]
- Following the Equator at Project Gutenberg
- Following the Equator public domain audiobook at LibriVox
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- 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
- "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
- "Cannibalism in the Cars"
- "A Literary Nightmare"
- "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage"
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- "1601"
- "The Stolen White Elephant"
- "Luck"
- "The Million Pound Bank Note"
- "A Double Barrelled Detective Story"
- "Those Extraordinary Twins"
- "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg"
- "A Dog's Tale"
- "Extracts from Adam's Diary"
- "The War Prayer"
- "Eve's Diary"
- "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven"
- "My Platonic Sweetheart"
- "Advice for Good Little Girls"
- Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance
- Sketches New and Old
- Mark Twain's Library of Humor
- Merry Tales
- The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories
- The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories
- "The Awful German Language"
- "On the Decay of the Art of Lying"
- "Advice to Youth"
- How to Tell a Story and Other Essays
- "Concerning the Jews"
- "To the Person Sitting in Darkness"
- "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany"
- "What Is Man?"
- "The United States of Lyncherdom"
- "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses"
- Letters from the Earth
- Territorial Enterprise letters
- Letters from Hawaii
- The Innocents Abroad
- Roughing It
- Old Times on the Mississippi
- A Tramp Abroad
- Life on the Mississippi
- Following the Equator
- Is Shakespeare Dead?
- Autobiography of Mark Twain (Chapters from My Autobiography)
- King Leopold's Soliloquy
- The Private History of a Campaign That Failed
- Christian Science
- "Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism"
- "Votes for Women"
and events
- Mark Twain Prize for American Humor
- Mark Twain Tonight!
- The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944)
- The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985)
- Mark Twain (2001 documentary)
- Twain and Shaw Do Lunch (2011 play)
- Mark Twain: The Musical
- Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife)
- Susy Clemens (daughter)
- Clara Clemens (daughter)
- Jean Clemens (daughter)
- John M. Clemens (father)
- Jane Lampton Clemens (mother)
- Orion Clemens (brother)
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