An Encounter with an Interviewer

by Mark Twain

A Telltale project:

Mark Twain (1835-1910) was an American author and beloved humorist best known for his serial novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Born Samuel Clemens, Twain made a name for himself with his travel writing, anti-imperialism satire, and a white linen suit he wore when speaking in public.

Alex Wilson is a writer and stage/film actor from northern Ohio and now based in Carrboro, North Carolina. He starred in the North American Premiere of Richard Taylor's musical Whistle Down the Wind and recently filmed The Third Cord with Emmy-nominated director Jack Lucido

Genres: Short Stories, Humor, Classics, Literature

Audio

First published January 1, 1874

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Keiki Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute, adorable Mark Twain One Act Play

[Lindsay · Rating 2 out of 5]

A quirky scrap of a story.

[Karen Chung · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite silly, but mildly entertaining.

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an extremely humorous story about Mark Twain deciding to mess with the mind of the reporter attempting to interview him.

[Salome Berechikidze · Rating 4 out of 5]

soo silly, ridiculous and funny :DD

[K. Anna Kraft · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have arranged my takeaway thoughts into a haiku:

"Like breakfast pastries,
Esteemed old trolls just adore
Polite wee upstarts."

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Q. How old are you?
A. Nineteen, in June.
Q. Indeed! I would have taken you to be thirty-five or six.
Where were you born?
A. In Missouri.
Q. When did you begin to write?
A. In 1836.
Q. Why, how could that be, if you are only nineteen
now?
A. I don't know. It does seem curious, somehow.
Q. It does, indeed. Who do you consider the most remark-
able man you ever met?
A. Aaron Burr.
Q. But you never could have met Aaron Burr, if you are
only nineteen years-
A. Now, if you know more about me than I do, what do
you ask me for?


Story here and some context on interviews here

[April Helms · Rating 5 out of 5]

An Encounter with an Interviewer. The beauty of so many Mark Twain pieces is that much of his fiction feels so real you wonder if it really happened, or at least were inspired by real events. That is the case here. From what I gleaned from the intro here, this is fictional, but I can't help but wonder if Twain at least had dreams of answering a young and naive interviewer much like the narrator here. The story made me laugh because the interviewer walks away, probably thinking his famous quarry isn't as smart as believed, while the narrator and famous person has exposed the younger man's foolishness. It's masterful writing.

[Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Algo así como un esbozo para el How To Irritate People de los Monty Python pre Monty Python y una guía de campo para si se es famoso y verse en la tesitura de ser entrevistado saber tratar con la lacra denominada periodistas.

[Gr1972 · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 out of 5

[Nelly3 · Rating 5 out of 5]

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