A picture tells much more than one thousand words. It's a well know saying but today I found this out for myself concerning the actual hot potato of racism, cultural injustice, etc.
In this picture below of 1904 American writer Samuel Clemens posed with his friend John T. Lewis during the last of Sam's visits to Quarry Farm in Elmira, New York, the farm owned by his in-laws. Sam had promised his wife (Olivia Langdon Clemens) once that she would never feel true homesickness, and from this emanated their annual summer pilgrimage to the farm.
Olivia's health later on in Sam's rather succesful career began to worsen so much so that she was advised not to follow her famous husband (Mark Twain) around the world any more and to stay home. Thus she went months without seeing him, but Sam frequently broke the rule and secretly saw her in order to exchange love letters and kisses. By the end of 1903, doctors' advice led the Clemens family to move to Italy for the warm climate. Olivia died there only six months later from heart failure.
The friendship between Sam and John began thus near to a quarter of a century beforehand when Lewis, a free man originally from Maryland, heroically saved Sam's sister-in-law and her daughter by stopping their runaway carriage. When Lewis eventually retired from farming, the well established Mark Twain and his in-laws ensured he had a pension.
Well, it’s now common belief that John inspired the character of Jim in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain resumed writing Huckleberry Finn in 1879 while at Quarry Farm, and the novel was likely influenced by his relationship with Lewis. Sam/Twain's respect for African American culture and his friendships with people like John was remarkable for the time.
Indeed, the special bond reflects a shared humanity that transcended the boundaries of their era, and Twain’s work, as noted by Toni Morrison, deconstructed racial ideology with unmatched eloquence and power.
