It's All About Context

The Influencers

In an introduction to an edition published by Lyle Stuart, Franklin J. Meine wrote that: “Mark Twain was just as irreverent as he dares be, and 1601 reveals his richest expression of sovereign contempt for overstuffed language, genteel literature, and conventional idiocies.”[1]

First published anonymously in 1880, 1601 was eventually acknowledged by Mark Twain in 1906, though in the meantime the authorship was widely conjectured, and often argued in literary circles. The pamphlet claims to record a conversation between Queen Elizabeth I and several famous writers of the day, including Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare (referred to as Shaxpur). The topics covered are varied, but most notably they discuss flatulence and sex. 

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Sandwiched between Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain wrote 1601 during the summer of 1876 when he and his family went to Quarry Farm in Elmira County in New York.[2] It was written for Reverend Joseph Twichell, Twain’s “most intimate friend for over forty years,” who also performed Twain’s marriage ceremony.[3] Twichell was about the same age as Twain and a devout Christian, a scholar, and the owner of an “exuberant sense of humor.”[4] It’s no wonder that a man like that would cause Twain to take a break from his more serious works and write 1601. 

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 The summer of 1876 was spent waiting: waiting for Tom Sawyer to appear and waiting for inspiration for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. To pass the time, Twain read English history volumes, learning about linguistic forms, and dabbled in his new favorite hobbies: politics and pornography. Though widely unacknowledged, porn was “flourishing” during the 1870s, and was often referred to as the “dark twin to ‘polite’ literature.”[5] Twain’s contributions to the genre, including lewd poems along with 1601, showed a “connoisseur’s familiarity with the preoccupations and lingo of porn.”[6] Twain unwittingly – though more likely wittingly – created an underground masterpiece, one that would become a cult classic.

References:

[1]Twain, Mark. "Mark Twain's [Date 1601.] Conversation as It Was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors: Embellished with an Illuminating Introduction, Fac." Archive.org. May 24, 2012. Accessed December 03, 2018. https://archive.org/details/marktwainsdate1600twai/page/n7.

[2]Ibid.

[3]Ibid.

[4]Ibid.

[5]Powers, Ron. Mark Twain: A Life. New York: Free Press, 2005.

[6]Ibid.