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Roughing It
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{{Short description|1872 Mark Twain memoir}} {{Infobox book | <!--See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books --> |name = Roughing It |image = Roughing It, p. 001.jpg |caption = Title page from first edition |author = [[Mark Twain]] |translator = |illustrator = |cover_artist = | country = United States |language = English | genre = [[Travel literature]] | publisher = American Publishing Company | release_date = 1872<ref>[[:File:1872. Roughing It.djvu|Facsimile of the original 1st edition]].</ref> |media_type = Print |pages = 608 (including title page) |isbn = | preceded_by = [[The Innocents Abroad]] (1869) | followed_by = [[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today]] (1873) }} '''''Roughing It''''' is a book of semi-autobiographical travel literature by [[Mark Twain]]. It was written in 1870–71 and published in 1872,<ref>{{cite web|title=Mark Twain's Most Famous Books|url=https://marktwainhouse.org/about/mark-twain/major-works/|website=The Mark Twain House & Museum|access-date=20 May 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Kaplan|first1=Justin|title=Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography|date=1966|publisher=Simon & Schuster|location=New York|isbn=9781439129319 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lj1Rc68iZ0YC|access-date=20 May 2017}}</ref> following his first travel book ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]'' (1869). ''Roughing It'' is dedicated to Twain's mining companion Calvin H. Higbie, later a civil engineer who died in 1914.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SU19140930&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1|title=Mark Twain's Old Mining Partner Is Dead|publisher=[[Sacramento Union]]|date=September 30, 1914|access-date=December 7, 2018}}</ref> The book follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the American West during the years 1861–1867. He joined his brother [[Orion Clemens]], who had been appointed Secretary of the [[Nevada Territory]], on a [[stagecoach]] journey west. Twain consulted his brother's diary to refresh his memory and borrowed heavily from his imagination for many stories in the book. ''Roughing It'' illustrates many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to [[Salt Lake City]], gold and silver prospecting, real-estate speculation, a journey to the [[Kingdom of Hawaii]], and his beginnings as a writer. This memoir provides examples of Twain's rough-hewn humor, which became a staple of his writing in later books such as ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' (1884), ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' (1876), and ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' (1889). ==In popular culture== U.S. astronauts [[Frank Borman]] and [[Jim Lovell]] read ''Roughing It'' aloud to pass the time aboard NASA's [[Gemini VII]], a 14-day-long Earth orbital mission in December 1965.<ref>{{cite web|title=''To the Moon'' transcript|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2610tothemoon.html|website=NOVA|publisher=PBS|access-date=20 May 2017}}</ref> In ''[[Lords of St. Thomas]]'', a 2018 historical novel set in [[St. Thomas, Nevada]], the main character "Little" Henry Lord is reading ''Roughing It'' when he learns that his father has fallen from the [[Hoover Dam]]. ==Adaptations== Various sections of ''Roughing It'' were borrowed by television series such as ''[[Bonanza]]''.<ref name="Rasmussen">{{cite book|last1=Rasmussen|first1=Kent R.|title=Critical Companion to Mark Twain|date=1995|publisher=Facts on File, Inc.|location=New York, NY|page=444|isbn=9781438108520 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VYsavOLN8HQC|access-date=20 May 2017}}</ref> In 1960, an hour-long adaptation was broadcast on [[NBC]] starring [[Andrew Prine]] and [[James Daly (actor)|James Daly]].<ref name="Rasmussen" /> A four-hour 2002 mini-series adaptation was broadcast on Hallmark Channel. Directed by [[Charles Martin Smith]], it starred [[James Garner]] as an elderly Samuel Clemens and [[Robin Dunne]] as a young Clemens.<ref name="Rasmussen" /> ''Roughing It'' recounts midway through the book that a rich "blind lead" gold strike was discovered and claimed by a partnership of Twain, Calvin Higbie, and a mine foreman A.D. Allen, giving them well-founded hopes of being millionaires. To establish a claim, it was required that any or all of the claimants do a reasonable amount of work on the claimed strike within ten days. Due to chance happenings and failed communications between the three, the work requirement was left unfulfilled, and the forfeited but rich claim was quickly seized by others ten days after it was discovered. In the dedication of the book, Twain refers to Higbie as an "Honest Man, a Genial Comrade, and a Steadfast Friend β¦ dedicated in Memory of the Curious Time When We Two Were Millionaires for Ten Days".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/roughingitbymark01twaiuoft/roughingitbymark01twaiuoft_djvu.txt|title=''Roughing It'' by Mark Twain|access-date=December 7, 2018}}</ref> The prospecting story is also covered in a 1968 episode of the [[Television syndication|syndicated television]] [[anthology series]] ''[[Death Valley Days]]'', hosted by [[Robert Taylor (American actor)|Robert Taylor]]. In the television dramatization, [[Tom Skerritt]] plays Twain, and [[Dabney Coleman]] was cast as Higbie.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0556752/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast|title=Ten Day Millionaires on ''Death Valley Days''|website=[[Internet Movie Database]]|access-date=May 4, 2019}}</ref> ==Notes== <references /> ==External links== {{Wikisource|Roughing It|''Roughing It''}} {{commons category}} * {{StandardEbooks|Standard Ebooks URL=https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/mark-twain/roughing-it}} * {{Gutenberg | no=3177 | name=Roughing It}} * {{librivox book | title=Roughing It | author=Mark Twain}} * {{cite book|title=Roughing It|author=Twain Mark|url=http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/roughingit/rihp.html |publisher= University of Virginia }} Text plus additional background material. * {{cite news|title= 3 short radio episodes from ''Roughing It''|url= http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/twain.html|work= [[California Legacy Project]]|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090506053845/http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/twain.html|archive-date= 2009-05-06}} {{Twain}} {{Authority control}} [[Category:1872 books]] [[Category:Books by Mark Twain]] [[Category:Latter Day Saints in popular culture]] [[Category:American travel books]] [[Category:American frontier]] [[Category:American autobiographies]]
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