True Story about Mark Twain.
Twain had become, in today's terms, Megarich from his writing and his spoken word performances.
So he was a target for people who wanted him to invest his money in their inventions.
He narrowed it down to two. One was a new mechanical printing process, which was in fact cumbersome and complex.
The other was Alexander Bell's invention of the Telephone.
Twain, having a background to do with printing, went with the former. And went bankrupt.
And that's why he became one of the world's first travelogue writers. For which the world is certainly the richer, for the records he wrote of the places he visited.
Another story
Samuel Clemens took the Name 'Mark Twain' [Mark two fathoms] from an old riverboat man.
When this fellow was told that Clemens had stolen his name, he made it known that he held Twain in absolute contempt.
When word of this got back to Twain he made it known that he considered it more of an honor to be held in contempt by that fellow than than to be praised by others.
Incidentally if you want to read a particularly savage anit-war tome, I refer you to the original text of 'A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court' which is not remotely like the light comedy Walt Disney and others have made it.
Cheers!
