PrintLighting Out For the Territory
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Roy Morris Jr.
www.simonandschuster.com
The action in this blow-by-blow account of the crucial five years Mark Twain spent in the West picks up in 1861 with Twain (still Samuel Clemens) losing his job as a riverboat pilot and fleeing the Civil War by boarding a stagecoach in Missouri bound for the Nevada Territory. Author Roy Morris Jr., the editor of Military Heritage magazine, has a clear command of history — he points out that an astonishing 9,927 westbound wagons once passed Fort Laramie in a single day — and proves that he’s just as intrigued by the West as he is by Twain’s place in it.
Lighting Out for the Territory covers Twain’s late 20s and early 30s — the Roughing It years for fans of the writer’s catalog. It’s a freewheeling time filled with prospecting, gambling, and endless nights in Old West saloons and hurdy-gurdy halls. During this astonishingly fruitful period, Twain adopts his famous pseudonym, hits San Francisco and Hawaii, publishes his first national sensation (“Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”), and begins his career-defining public speaking engagements.
Missteps are covered, including a story about a family massacre Twain fabricated for a Nevada newspaper, presumably to boost his reputation as a reporter. But rather than take sides, the ever-skeptical Morris treats the future legend simply as a remarkable presence in a remarkable place, and wisely lets the many winning anecdotes do the talking.
