A Wink Swallowed by an Earthquake (1880)
Chapter 53 of "Rebel With a Cause: Mark Twain's Hidden Memoirs"
Chapter 53
A Wink Swallowed by an Earthquake (1880)The Innocents Abroad had done so well that it appeared to me that a sequel was in order.
Whereas Roughing It had been written long after most of the events covered, and I had had no intention of making a book out of those experiences at the time I lived them, my two European trips were taken with the express idea of writing them up; in the case of A Tramp Abroad, to churn out a book to foist upon an unsuspecting public.
A Tramp Abroad differed from its predecessor The Innocents Abroad not just in that over a decade had passed over my head between the two journeys, but also in that on this occasion I traveled with an entourage of friends and family. Among the group of travelers was our Hartford neighbor, my walking partner and head clerk of the “doxology works” in our community, Joseph Twichell. I called him “Harris” in the book, though.
The countries we visited which served as the scenes and backgrounds for the collection of vignettes and impressions that comprised the book were chiefly Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, but we also made forays into Belgium, Holland, and England.
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