![]() Embedded in the altogether fascinating story, on a closer read, is a testament to history’s cyclical nature as a parallel emerges between San Francisco in the Gold Rush era and Silicon Valley today, and between the respective patron saints of those worlds - Mark Twain and Steve Jobs.īorn in 1835, Twain came of age “at the best possible time,” as the country was on the cusp of a remarkable cultural change, driven in large part by the discovery of gold in California in 1848 - the spark for the famous Gold Rush, which drew risk-takers, pioneers, and enterprising vagabonds from all over the world and elevated San Francisco as a gateway to the era’s El Dorado. ![]() In The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature ( public library), Ben Tarnoff chronicles that becoming alongside the rise of the singular “vanguard of democracy” that shaped the course of the Western written word, a course largely steered by Twain. But perhaps his greatest feat was his own becoming - how he transformed Samuel Clemens into Mark Twain, “the Lincoln of Literature.” ![]() ![]() Mark Twain has no shortage of cultural credits - celebrated humorist, irreverent adviser to little girls, opinionated critic and cultural commentator, underappreciated poet, recipient of some outrageous requests from his fans. ![]()
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