[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 154 (Tuesday, November 30, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8292-S8293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     COMMEMORATING THE 175TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF MARK TWAIN

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S. Res. 690, submitted 
earlier today.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will report the resolution by title.
  The assistant bill clerk read as follows:

       A resolution (S. Res. 690) commemorating the 175th 
     anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain.

  There being no objection, the Senate proceeded to consider the 
resolution.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the 
resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, the motions to 
reconsider be laid upon the table, with no intervening action or 
debate, and that any statements related to the resolution be printed in 
the Record.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The resolution (S. Res. 690) was agreed to.
  The preamble was agreed to.
  The resolution, with its preamble, reads as follows:

                              S. Res. 690

       Whereas Mark Twain was born with the name Samuel Langhorne 
     Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, the 6th 
     child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens;
       Whereas in 1839, the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, 
     Missouri, the inspiration for the fictional town of St. 
     Petersburg depicted in the novels ``The Adventures of Tom 
     Sawyer'' and ``Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', where the 
     Clemens family lived until 1853, including several years of 
     residence at 206 Hill Street, known as the boyhood home of 
     Mark Twain;
       Whereas in 1848, Samuel Clemens left school to become a 
     printer's apprentice at the Missouri Courier newspaper, his 
     first in a series of occupations that include, most notably, 
     author, but also, printer, typesetter, steamboat pilot, 
     journalist, lecturer, publisher, editor, prospector, and 
     political activist;
       Whereas while working at the Virginia City newspaper, the 
     Territorial Enterprise, Clemens first used the pen name 
     ``Mark Twain'' in 1863;
       Whereas with the publication of the short story ``Jim 
     Smiley and His Jumping Frog'' in The Saturday Press in 1865, 
     Mark Twain experienced his first significant success as an 
     author;
       Whereas in 1869, Twain's first book, ``The Innocents 
     Abroad'', was published, detailing Twain's adventures through 
     Europe and the Middle East;
       Whereas Samuel Clemens, known for the love and affection he 
     demonstrated for his wife and family and to whom the quote, 
     ``What is a home without a child?'', is attributed, in 1870 
     married Olivia Langdon, with whom he had 4 children, Langdon, 
     Olivia Susan, Clara Langdon, and Jane Lampton;
       Whereas the book ``Roughing It'', part autobiography and 
     part tall tale, chronicling Twain's adventures in the early 
     American West and critiquing society's treatment of Chinese 
     Americans, was published in 1872;
       Whereas ``The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today'', a novel Twain 
     wrote in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner satirizing 
     political corruption and greed in American life, was 
     published in 1873;
       Whereas Twain's novel, ``The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'', 
     through which he sought ``to pleasantly remind adults of what 
     they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought 
     and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged 
     in'', was published in 1876;
       Whereas in 1881, Twain addressed class issues and attacked 
     injustice and hypocrisy in English society with the 
     publication of his novel, ``The Prince and the Pauper'';
       Whereas in 1883, ``Life on the Mississippi'', Twain's book 
     exploring the history and lore of the Mississippi River and 
     detailing his time spent as a Mississippi River steamboat 
     pilot, was published;
       Whereas Mark Twain's most famous work, ``Adventures of 
     Huckleberry Finn'', which attacked the institution of 
     slavery, the failures of Reconstruction, and the continued 
     mistreatment of African Americans in American society, and 
     which is considered a masterpiece of American fiction and is 
     widely known as one of the Great American Novels, was 
     published in 1884;
       Whereas Twain's powerful social critique, ``A Connecticut 
     Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', was published in 1889;
       Whereas ``The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson'', Twain's 
     strongest critique of racism and the institution of slavery, 
     was published in 1894;
       Whereas on April 21, 1910, Samuel Clemens died at the age 
     of 74; and

[[Page S8293]]

       Whereas the 175th anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain is 
     an historic occasion: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate commemorates the 175th 
     anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain on November 30, 2010, 
     and his enduring legacy as one of our Nation's greatest 
     authors and humorists.

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