{"id":60789,"date":"2020-08-14T09:52:13","date_gmt":"2020-08-14T13:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=60789"},"modified":"2025-08-14T11:33:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T15:33:27","slug":"mark-twain-defends-huckleberry-finn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/mark-twain-defends-huckleberry-finn.html","title":{"rendered":"Mark Twain Defends \u2018Huckleberry Finn\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn<\/em>, a novel by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), periodically stirs up controversy \u2013 as it has since the day it was first published over a hundred years ago. The book is often hailed as an American classic, but some libraries and schools have banned the novel for its perceived crudeness, racial stereotypes, and use of the word \u201cnigger.\u201d This inflammatory word appears more than 200 times in the book, and in reaction some censors have prevented high school students having access to Twain\u2019s novel.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens), 1884. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Huckleberry Finn<\/em> was published in the United States on 18 February 1885 (it was first published in Canada and England, in December 1884, but the American edition was delayed). The novel received generally favorable reviews when first published.<\/p>\n

However, the Concord (Mass.) Public Library banned the book when it came out \u2013 though not because of the word \u201cnigger.\u201d Instead, the library committee objected to the novel\u2019s \u201cbad grammar\u201d and \u201crough, ignorant dialect\u2019\u2019 \u2013 language used by the book\u2019s characters that Twain worked very hard to capture authentically.<\/p>\n

\"Illustration:<\/a>
Illustration: Huckleberry Finn, as depicted by E. W. Kemble in the original 1884 edition of the book. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For the most part \u2013 Concord aside \u2013 Huckleberry Finn<\/em> was accepted and for 17 years was available in many libraries nationwide. Then, in 1902, the Denver Public Library banned the book for juvenile readers, and a controversy erupted that moved Twain to write the acerbic response printed in the newspaper article below. (Following this article is a second newspaper article about the earlier controversy regarding the Concord library decision.)<\/p>\n

By way of background, the \u201cFunston\u201d referred to in Twain\u2019s letter was General Frederick N. Funston, who had given a speech in Denver urging support for the war in the Philippines and suggesting that any Americans who did not support the war effort \u201cshould be dragged out of their homes and lynched.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Major General Frederick Funston, 1906. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Twain, who hated the war and America\u2019s imperialistic impulses, published a satirical article, \u201cA Defence of General Funston,\u201d deriding the general and his views. Funston had connections to the Denver Public Library, and Twain was certain the general was involved in the library\u2019s decision to ban Huckleberry Finn<\/em>. Twain got his revenge the best way he knew how: with his words.<\/p>\n

Funston should have realized whom he was tangling with and been more cautious! Surely one of the classic put-down lines of all time is Twain\u2019s caustic remark: \u201c[Funston] is, as usual, a proper object of compassion, and the bowels of my sympathy are moved toward him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a><\/p>\n

Twain\u2019s letter was reprinted in newspapers nationwide, and embarrassed the Denver Public Library into quickly lifting its ban on Huckleberry Finn<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Denver Post (Denver, Colorado), 18 August 1902, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

MARK TWAIN SCORES MEN WHO DON\u2019T LIKE \u201cHUCK\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Denver Post, last week on hearing that \u201cHuckleberry Finn\u201d had been thrown out of the Denver Public Library, wired to Mark Twain for an opinion on the subject. Today The Post received the letter herewith printed, but it must add that the efforts of certain individuals to have the book discarded here have failed and \u201cHuckleberry Finn\u201d will again adorn the shelves of the public library as soon as the appropriation will permit its purchase. Mark Twain\u2019s letter is as follows:<\/p>\n

Mark Twain\u2019s Letter to the Denver Post.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Your telegram reached me (per post) from \u201cYork Village\u201d (which is a short brickbat throw from my house) yesterday afternoon when it was thirty hours old. And yet, in my experience, that was not only abnormally quick work for a telegraph company to do, but abnormally intelligent work for that kind of mummy to be whirling off out of its alleged mind.<\/p>\n

Twenty-four hours earlier the Country Club had notified me that a stranger in Portsmouth (a half-hour from here) wished me to come to the club at 7:30 p.m. and call him up and talk upon a matter of business. I said: \u201cLet him take the trolley and come over, if his business is worth the time and the fare to him.\u201d It was doubtless yourself \u2013 and not in Portsmouth, but in Denver. I was not thinking much about business at the time, for the reason that a consultation of physicians was appointed for that hour (7:30) at my house to consider if means might be devised to save my wife\u2019s life. At the present writing \u2013 Thursday afternoon [Aug. 14] \u2013 it is believed that she will recover.<\/p>\n

When the watch was relieved an hour ago and I left the sick chamber to take my respite, I began to frame answers to your dispatch, but it was only to entertain myself, for I am aware that I am not privileged to speak freely in this matter, funny as the occasion is and dearly as I should like to laugh at it; and when I can\u2019t speak freely I don\u2019t speak at all.<\/p>\n

You see, there are two or three pointers:<\/p>\n

First \u2013 Huck Finn was turned out of a New England library seventeen years ago \u2013 ostensibly on account of his morals; really to curry favor with a personage. There has been no other instance until now.<\/p>\n

Second \u2013 A few months ago I published an article which threw mud at that pinchbeck hero, Funston, and his extraordinary morals.<\/p>\n

Third \u2013 Huck\u2019s morals have stood the strain in Denver and in every English, German and French-speaking community in the world \u2013 save one \u2013 for seventeen years until now.<\/p>\n

Fourth \u2013 The strain breaks the connection now.<\/p>\n

Fifth \u2013 In Denver alone.<\/p>\n

Sixth \u2013 Funston commands there.<\/p>\n

Seventh \u2013 And has dependants and influence.<\/p>\n

When one puts these things together the cat that is in the meal is disclosed \u2013 and quite unmistakably.<\/p>\n

Said cat consists of a few persons who wish to curry favor with Funston, and whom God has not dealt kindly with in the matter of wisdom.<\/p>\n

Everybody in Denver knows this, even the dead people in the cemeteries. It may be that Funston has wit enough to know that these good idiots are adding another howling absurdity to his funny history; it may be that God has charitably spared him that degree of penetration, slight as it is; in any case he is \u2013 as usual \u2013 a proper object of compassion, and the bowels of my sympathy are moved toward him.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nobody for me to attack in this matter, even with soft and gentle ridicule \u2013 and I shouldn\u2019t ever think of using a grown-up weapon in this kind of a nursery. Above all, I couldn\u2019t venture to attack the clergymen whom you mention, for I have their habits and live in the same glass house which they are occupying. I am always reading immoral books on the sly and then selfishly trying to prevent other people from having the same wicked good time.<\/p>\n

No, if Satan\u2019s morals and Funston\u2019s are preferable to Huck\u2019s, let Huck\u2019s take a back seat; they can stand any ordinary competition, but not a combination like that. And I\u2019m not going to defend them anyway.<\/p>\n

Sincerely yours,
\nS. L. Clemens
\nYork Harbor, Aug. 14, 1902<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
New York Herald (New York, New York), 18 March 1885, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Here is a transcription of this article:<\/p>\n

\u201cHuckleberry Finn\u201d in Concord.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The sage censors of the Concord Public Library have unanimously reached the conclusion that \u201cHuckleberry Finn\u201d is not the sort of reading matter for the knowledge seekers of a town which boasts the only \u201csummer school of philosophy\u201d in the universe. They have accordingly banished it from the shelves of that institution.<\/p>\n

The reasons which moved them to this action are weighty and to the point. One of the Library Committee, while not prepared to hazard the opinion that the book is \u201cabsolutely immoral in its tone,\u201d does not hesitate to declare that to him \u201cit seems to contain but very little humor.\u201d Another committeeman perused the volume with great care and discovered that it was \u201ccouched in the language of a rough, ignorant dialect\u201d and that \u201call through its pages there is a systematic use of bad grammar and an employment of inelegant expressions.\u201d The third member voted the book \u201cflippant\u201d and \u201ctrash of the veriest sort.\u201d They all united in the verdict that \u201cit deals with a series of experiences that are certainly not elevating,\u201d and voted that it could not be tolerated in the public library.<\/p>\n

The committee very considerately explain the mystery of how this unworthy production happened to find its way into the collection under their charge. \u201cKnowing the author\u2019s reputation,\u201d and presumably being familiar with the philosophic pages of \u201cThe Innocents Abroad,\u201d \u201cRoughing It,\u201d \u201cThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer,\u201d \u201cThe Jumping Frog,\u201d &c., they deemed it \u201ctotally unnecessary to make a very careful examination of \u2018Huckleberry Finn\u2019 before sending it to Concord.\u201d But the learned librarian, probably seizing upon it on its arrival to peruse it with eager zest, \u201cwas not particularly pleased with it.\u201d He promptly communicated his feelings to the committee, who at once proceeded to enter upon a critical reading of the suspected volume, with the results that are now laid before the public.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/em><\/strong> An online collection of newspapers, such as GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, is not only a great way to learn about the lives of your ancestors \u2013 the old newspaper articles also help you understand American history and the times your ancestors lived in, and the news they talked about and read in their local papers.<\/p>\n

Create a free account<\/a> at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.<\/p>\n

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