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Cigar Culture: Mark Twain
By Jennifer Jordan
Anyone who knew Mark Twain, either personally, professionally, or through his legacy of literature, knew that he was a writer whose cigars were as instrumental to his existence as his written words. In the history of cigars, there was no one who was a bigger fan, or a more dedicated smoker. His love of tobacco can not be rivaled by anyone, with the exception, naturally, of Samuel Clemens.
Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri to a country merchant and his wife. Though he was the sixth of seven children, this was an era marked by disease and death; three of the children died during childhood. At the age of four, Twain and his family moved to a town located on the Mississippi River. Unbeknownst to anyone at the time, it was this river, and the inspiration it garnered, that would change both Twain's life and the face of American Literature.
It is rumored that at the age of eight, a penniless boy in tattered clothing, Twain began smoking 100 cigars per month. He was able to get these cigars from a lonely shop keeper in the village who took pity on the young. Whenever boys offered to fetch him water, this shop keeper would reward them with a supply of cigars. This was all it took for Twain to develop a life long habit and a life long love.
When Mark Twain got married in 1870, he tried to part ways with his cigars. However, upon his cessation, he found that he was unable to write; it took him a week to write just two chapters. This book, fittingly called, "Roughing It," would not be written without tobacco. Twain finally decided to give up on giving up cigars, resumed smoking, and finished the book in three months.
Twain, quite simply, was inspired by tobacco; it was a muse he encapsulated in a 1883 essay entitled, "Smoking as Inspiration." He went on to pen many other essays and writings that touched on his love for tobacco.
In the early 1890's, Twain was close to bankrupt after investing in a typesetting machine that never fulfilled its revolutionary promises. To help pay his debt, Twain toured around the British Empire, a tour that allowed him to lecture for money. In 1897, he put this tour on paper by writing of his travels in Following the Equator. While this book is famous for its criticism of Imperialism and racism, it was also a book that gave Twain a chance to discuss the love affair he was having with cigars.
In one part of this book, Twain discusses his attempt to limit himself to one cigar a day, an attempt that, in the end, he replaced with freedom of choice. He states, "When I was a youth I used to take all kinds of pledges, and do my best to keep them, but I never could, because I didn't strike at the root of the habit--the desire; I generally broke down within the month. Once I tried limiting a habit. That worked tolerably well for a while. I pledged myself to smoke but one cigar a day. I kept the cigar waiting until bedtime, then I had a luxurious time with it. But desire persecuted me every day and all day long; so, within the week I found myself hunting for larger cigars than I had been used to smoke; then larger ones still, and still larger ones. Within the fortnight I was getting cigars made for me--on a yet larger pattern. They still grew and grew in size. Within the month my cigar had grown to such proportions that I could have used it as a crutch. It now seemed to me that a one-cigar limit was no real protection to a person, so I knocked my pledge on the head and resumed my liberty."
Mark Twain was also the man behind an essay entitled "Concerning Tobacco." In these works, Twain states that no standard, other than a man's own judgment, can be used to measure the greatness of a cigar; to each his own, own opinion and own cigar.
Many of the most famous cigar quotes were uttered by Twain. These include, "Eating and sleeping are the only activities that should be allowed to interrupt a man's enjoyment of his cigar;" "I have stopped smoking now and then, for a few months at a time, but it was not on principle, it was only to show off; it was to pulverize those critics who said I was a slave to my habits and couldn't break my bonds;" and, the most famous, "If there are no cigars in Heaven, I shall not go."
Four years prior to his death, Mark Twain gave a speech at his 70th birthday celebration. In this speech, he revealed his key ingredients to survival. One of these key ingredients was that he simply, "made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time."
About the Author:
Jennifer Jordan is an editor and staff writer for http://www.whatsknottolove.com. At home in a design firm in Denver, Colorado, she writes articles specific to the finer things in life.
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