The Autobiography of Mark Twain · Chapter
Old Lecture Days in Boston explained
Twain recounts the lecture circuit of the late 1860s and early 1870s, focusing on the phenomenon of Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby, his explosive fame during the Civil War, his peculiar lecturing style, and the rigorous system of trying out lectu
What happens
Twain recounts the lecture circuit of the late 1860s and early 1870s, focusing on the phenomenon of Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby, his explosive fame during the Civil War, his peculiar lecturing style, and the rigorous system of trying out lectures in small towns before debuting in Boston's Music Hall. He also describes the disastrous debut of De Cordova, a humorist who failed because he did not rehearse before a country audience and was unaware that half the house would leave at nine to catch suburban cars.
Themes in this chapter
Character and Morality
Twain reflects on the mean and selfish human nature that takes satisfaction in a fellow craftsman's failure, as when he and other lecturers felt relief at De Cordova's disastrous debut.
The American Experience
The lecture circuit and the rise of figures like Nasby illustrate the democratic, commercial, and regional dynamics of post-Civil War American culture.
Characters to notice
- Petroleum Vesuvius Nasby
Civil War satirist whose Nasby letters were widely copied; delivered the same lecture 'Cussed be Canaan' hundreds of times from manuscript, with a mechanical delivery and a thundering voice.
- Mark Twain
Narrator and lecturer who began lecturing in 1866, participated in the Boston lecture circuit, and observed both Nasby's success and De Cordova's failure.
- James Redpath
Operated Redpath's Lecture Bureau, where the lecturers gathered to smoke and talk shop before their engagements.
- Charles Dickens
Mentioned in passing: De Cordova used a 'Dickens arrangement' of a tall gallows frame with upholsteries for his reading desk.
Key passages
“We are all descended from grandfathers!”
Every person has a grandfather, a simple and universal truth.
Nasby's opening line, which he could deliver from memory after hundreds of repetitions, became a humorous catchphrase.
“The country audience is the difficult audience; a passage which it will approve with a ripple will bring a crash in the city.”
Rural audiences are harder to please; if a joke gets a mild laugh in the country, it will get a big laugh in the city.
Twain explains the strategy of testing lectures in small towns before the Boston debut.
“We drew a deep sigh; it ought to have been a sigh of pity for a defeated fellow craftsman, but it was not—for we were mean and selfish, like all the human race, and it was a sigh of satisfaction to see our unoffending brother fail.”
We sighed with relief, not pity, because we were selfish and took pleasure in a competitor's failure.
Twain candidly admits the ungenerous reaction he and his colleagues felt when De Cordova bombed.