Thursday - October 15, 2020 - Five authors of Greenwich Village - as told by Kate Alsbury - Mark Twain

THE ADVENTURES OF MARK TWAIN IN GREENWICH

Remembered for his life on the Mississippi and southern wit, Mark Twain spent a considerable amount of time in New York City, particularly Greenwich Village. Entertaining a wide circle of visionary friends, he was a frequent visitor at Nikola Tesla’s Greenwich laboratory, the first of which was on Grand Street, the second on South Fifth Avenue.

Mark Twain's house in downtown Manhattan still attracts the most attention. He lived at 14 West 10th Street (supposedly haunted) from 1900 to 1901. Twain and his wife left the house in part for the benefit Twain’s wife, having been in ill-health on and off for years, found the upkeep of such a large home taxing. They moved upstate to the Adirondacks, then to Riverdale-on-the Hudson, seeking the restorative qualities of country life. 

Twain would return to New York in 1904, taking a house at 21 Fifth Avenue and 9th Street, and remaining there until the summer of 1908. The building was demolished in the 1950s.

He visited Greenwich before moving to New York semi-permanently in 1900. On one occasion, he met with Robert Louis Stevenson (who was in town for a short time) in Washington Square Park, according to Emily Kies Folpe’s book, It Happened In Washington Square Park. Settling on a park bench, they chatted for nearly five hours.

A CLUB

Early in 1906, a small group of young writers and settlement workers with socialist ideals bought a mansion on 3 Fifth Avenue, north of Washington Square. Originally meant as a cooperative housing agreement that would provide everyone with a convenient place to live and work, it quickly drew the attention of the press. The acquisition of this prime piece of New York real estate for unknown purposes was considered so irregular and at odds with ‘acceptable culture’ that reporters descended upon club members. When asked what the society was to be, Howard Brubaker, its president said, “Oh, just call it a club.” It then became known popularly as “A Club,” and was an important addition to the neighborhood, even though it only lasted a few years. When interviewed, members gave conflicting reasons for its founding. As self-described “radicals,” one member already had an idea the club might become a place to promote political movements. Many were already working on activities assisting the Russian Revolution.

In April of 1906, Russian writer and enigmatic leader of the 1905 Russian Revolution, Maxim Gorky caused a stir when he arrived in New York. He’d become a Marxist while living in St. Petersburg, never officially joining Lenin’s party, but given the go-ahead by Lenin to head off on an American excursion in hope of raising money and enthusiasm for the cause.

A banquet-style celebration was planned in Gorky’s honor. Made possible in part by The Society of American Friends of Russian Freedom, of which Mark Twain was a member. It was founded in the 1890s by anti-tsar reformers and activists. 

Twain along with other literary figures of the time, like William Dean Howells, chaired a committee that was to be responsible for hosting it. The reception was planned to take place at the A club shortly after Gorky’s arrival.

Everything was going smoothly, but that was about to change drastically. An article ran in New York World revealing that Madame Andreyeva, the woman Gorky was traveling with, was not his wife, and he was in fact, married to another woman.

Even though it was already fairly well-known that they had a long-standing common-law marriage, it didn’t save Gorky or Twain from embarrassment. The celebration was cancelled, and many of the committee members, including Twain, resigned. Denied accommodation by three hotels, Gorky and Andreyeva found themselves wandering the streets on a rainy night. They asked the A Club to take them in. They remained there for several days, kept away from the press until they could escape to safer places with others sympathetic to their plight.

SPEECHES, APPEARANCES, AND OTHER WORKS

He gave several speeches during his time in the city. One was at the Waldorf Astoria for the annual New York Press Club Dinner in 1906. But this wasn’t his first time in the grand ballroom of New York’s “unofficial palace.” 

An even more illustrious moment in 1900 gave him the opportunity to introduce a young Winston Churchill, visiting America after escaping from a prisoner-of-war camp in Africa. During his introduction he remarked, “I think England sinned in getting into a war in South Africa which she could have avoided without loss of credit or dignity just as I think we have sinned in crowding ourselves into a war in the Philippines on the same terms. "

He gave another speech, this time on the “Disappearance of Literature” at a dinner hosted by the Nineteenth Century Club at Sherry’s on Fifth Avenue. It was famous for holding an extravagant dinner dreamt up by industrialist Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings where horses were brought to the fourth floor of the building to create the illustrious sense of a countryside outing. 

The third was just before the Christmas of 1907 at the New York Engineers’ Club. 

While some of his most significant publications were already behind him, he was still busy with essays, speeches, and other public appearances which included “A Salutation Speech From the Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth” and “To the Person Sitting in Darkness,” airing his thoughts on the boxer rebellion, from his collection of anti-imperialist writings. “Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany” was given as a speech before publication in 1901.

Mark Twain's short stories remain popular. One, “A Double Barrelled Detective Story” published in 1902, chronicles the wildly popular exploits of Sherlock Holmes as he explores the American West with classic Twain exuberance.

Even though Twain’s time in New York was sporadic, he made the most of it. Filling his days and nights with conversation and entertainment, rubbing shoulders with the cream of New York society, from writers and businessmen like the Carnegies to future Prime Ministers.

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Kate Alsbury is a writer and marketing consultant. Her creative work has appeared in journals like Frogpond and Modern Haiku, along with several anthologies.