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The American Claimant

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Barkly, of Chumly Castle, Warrikshr"). At the beginning of the novel, Berkeley announces his intention to go to America and "change places" with Simon Lathers, the man he considers the rightful heir. He wishes to "retire...from a false existence, a false position, and begin life over again, begin it right--begin it on the level of mere manhood, unassisted by factitious aids, and succeed or fail by pure merit or the want of it. I will go to America, where all men are equal and all have an equal chance; I will live or die, sink or swim, win or lose as just a man—that alone, and not a single helping gaud or fiction back of it." Shortly after his arrival to the United States, the hotel in which he is staying catches fire. During his escape, Berkeley snatches up the cowboy hat and distinctive clothes of a bank robber from the Cherokee Strip whom, coincidentally, Hawkins has been ineffectually tracking. When Berkeley is seen in this garb, Hawkins and Colonel Sellers believe that this cowboy-hatted man is the desperado; everyone else believes that he is an English cowboy. After the newspapers announce that Berkeley has died in the fire, he decides to renounce his former identity and calls himself Howard Tracy, determining to work for his living according to democratic principles.
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her father becomes the rightful heir of the Earl of Rossmore. However, the narrative describes Sally as having a "double personality": She is both Sally Sellers, who is "practical and democratic," and Lady Gwendolen, who is "romantic and aristocratic." During the day she works hard designing and sewing dresses to help financially support her family, and in the evening she upholds the shadowy fantasy of the family's nobility. She falls in love with Howard Tracy (Viscount Berkeley) at first sight and later renounces her aspirations of aristocracy in order to be with him.
172:, the first author (according to Twain himself) to do so. This was also (according to Twain) an attempt to write a book without mention of the weather, the first of its kind in fictitious literature (although the first sentence of the second paragraph references weather: "breezy fine morning"). Indeed, all the weather is contained in an appendix, at the back of the book, which the reader is encouraged to turn to from time to time. 357: 218:
The Congressional Delegate from Cherokee Strip in the far west, who partners with Colonel Sellers in several of his schemes. Hawkins is described as a "stoutish, discouraged-looking man whose general aspect suggested that he was fifty years old, but whose hair swore to a hundred." At the beginning of
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Daughter of Colonel Mulberry Sellers and Polly Sellers. She attends Rowena-Ivanhoe College, "the selectest and most aristocratic seat of learning for young ladies" in the US. Like her father, Sally is given to Romantic aspirations and delusions of grandeur. She happily takes the name Gwendolen after
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According to the tin signs by his door, Sellers is an attorney at law and claim agent, a materializer, a hypnotizer, and a mind-cure dabbler. He has also been named "Perpetual Member of the Diplomatic Body representing the multifarious sovereignties and civilizations of the globe near the republican
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The only son and heir of the Earl of Rossmore. According to the narrative, his full name is the Honourable Kirkcudbright Llanover Marjoribanks Sellers Viscount-Berkeley, of Cholmondeley Castle, Warwickshire(which the narrative tells us is pronounced "K'koobry Thlanover Marshbanks Sellers Vycount
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An eccentric white-headed old man who becomes the rightful heir to the Earl of Rossmore after the death of his relative, Simon Lathers. According to his wife, Sellers is a "scheming, generous, good-hearted, moonshiny, hopeful, no-account failure" who is well beloved for his generosity and
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approachability. Although many of his eccentric money-making schemes are failures, he occasionally "makes a strike," as he calls it, and makes quite a bit of money. One such strike is an exceedingly popular toy, "Pigs in the Clover," which he invents and patents.
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is a comedy of mistaken identities and multiple role switches. Its cast of characters include an American enamored of British hereditary aristocracy and a British earl entranced by American democracy.
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The explanatory note at the beginning of the novel indicates that Colonel Sellers is the same character as Eschol Sellers in the first edition of Twain's earlier novel
208:(1873) and Beriah Sellers in later editions. The note also identifies Colonel Sellers as the same character as Mulberry Sellers in John T. Raymond's dramatization of 564: 463: 1048: 1114: 1236: 1226: 940: 1190: 1077: 912: 791: 508: 279: 858: 393: 1210: 1130: 591: 308: 885: 645: 517: 876: 663: 840: 764: 600: 903: 427: 204: 1029: 454: 1396: 1391: 1362: 1201: 681: 978: 726: 436: 1023: 894: 636: 76: 1039: 291: 831: 654: 618: 445: 1369: 1086: 1057: 386: 1267: 1257: 1107: 996: 573: 535: 411: 261: 1286: 1152: 921: 717: 1318: 1121: 1014: 1005: 499: 250:"He was constructing what seemed to be some kind of frail mechanical toy". Illustration to 1896 edition. 1326: 1144: 960: 755: 582: 490: 1218: 951: 867: 379: 219:
the novel he has been living with his wife, Louise, and their children for the last fifteen years.
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Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance
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Twain wrote the novel with the help of 25: 18: 199:court of the United States of America." 1078:Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism 272: 240: 792:The $ 30,000 Bequest and Other Stories 348:website, depicting Twain's preface to 509:Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc 280:Facsimile of the original 1st edition 7: 859:How to Tell a Story and Other Essays 1211:Mark Twain Prize for American Humor 1191:Twain–Ament indemnities controversy 913:Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses 592:A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage 886:Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany 646:A Double Barrelled Detective Story 518:A Double Barrelled Detective Story 14: 877:To the Person Sitting in Darkness 664:The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg 230:Berkeley Rossmore (Howard Tracy): 841:On the Decay of the Art of Lying 601:The Great Revolution in Pitcairn 355: 294:, a March 25, 1999 article from 243: 904:The United States of Lyncherdom 428:The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today 311:, a July 15, 1998 article from 1115:Birthplace State Historic Site 1030:Chapters from My Autobiography 455:Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1: 1363:Center For Mark Twain Studies 765:Mark Twain's Library of Humor 309:Twain Rolls On To New Heights 1238:The Adventures of Mark Twain 1228:The Adventures of Mark Twain 979:Old Times on the Mississippi 727:Advice for Good Little Girls 437:The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 352:from the original manuscript 1024:Autobiography of Mark Twain 637:The Million Pound Bank Note 365:public domain audiobook at 1413: 682:Extracts from Adam's Diary 223:Sally (Gwendolen) Sellers: 832:The Awful German Language 655:Those Extraordinary Twins 619:The Stolen White Elephant 446:The Prince and the Pauper 409: 192:Colonel Mulberry Sellers: 24: 1370:National Tom Sawyer Days 1040:King Leopold's Soliloquy 1268:Mark Twain: The Musical 1258:Twain and Shaw Do Lunch 1131:Boyhood home and museum 997:Life on the Mississippi 574:Cannibalism in the Cars 536:The Mysterious Stranger 262:Mark Twain bibliography 1287:Olivia Langdon Clemens 1153:Territorial Enterprise 942:Territorial Enterprise 922:Letters from the Earth 718:My Platonic Sweetheart 20:The American Claimant 1006:Following the Equator 500:Tom Sawyer, Detective 473:The American Claimant 362:The American Claimant 350:The American Claimant 331:The American Claimant 181:The American Claimant 144:The American Claimant 1397:Novels by Mark Twain 1392:1892 American novels 1327:Jane Lampton Clemens 1145:Mark Twain in Nevada 1015:Is Shakespeare Dead? 961:The Innocents Abroad 756:Sketches New and Old 583:A Literary Nightmare 1219:Mark Twain Tonight! 952:Letters from Hawaii 868:Concerning the Jews 346:UC Berkeley Library 342:Special Collections 216:Washington Hawkins: 21: 16:Novel by Mark Twain 1251:(2001 documentary) 545:Hellfire Hotchkiss 314:The New York Times 297:The New York Times 94:Charles L. Webster 1379: 1378: 1058:Christian Science 491:Pudd'nhead Wilson 482:Tom Sawyer Abroad 336:Project Gutenberg 140: 139: 109:Publication place 77:alternate history 1404: 1372: 1365: 1358: 1338: 1330: 1322: 1314: 1306: 1298: 1290: 1271: 1262: 1252: 1242: 1232: 1222: 1213: 1193: 1186: 1179: 1177:Mark Twain House 1172: 1163: 1161:Sagebrush School 1156: 1147: 1140: 1133: 1124: 1117: 1110: 1090: 1081: 1061: 1052: 1043: 1034: 1018: 1009: 1000: 991: 982: 973: 964: 955: 946: 925: 916: 907: 898: 889: 880: 871: 862: 853: 844: 835: 815: 795: 786: 777: 768: 759: 750: 730: 721: 712: 703: 694: 685: 676: 667: 658: 649: 640: 631: 622: 613: 604: 595: 586: 577: 568: 548: 539: 530: 521: 512: 503: 494: 485: 476: 467: 458: 449: 440: 431: 396: 389: 382: 373: 359: 358: 338: 317: 306: 300: 289: 283: 277: 247: 100:Publication date 29: 22: 1412: 1411: 1407: 1406: 1405: 1403: 1402: 1401: 1382: 1381: 1380: 1375: 1368: 1361: 1352: 1341: 1333: 1325: 1319:John M. 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Index


Mark Twain
Dan Beard
Humor
Satire
alternate history
science fiction
fantasy
Hardcover
Paperback
1892
novel
humorist
writer
Mark Twain
phonographic
dictation
Gilded Age
"He was constructing what seemed to be some kind of frail mechanical toy". Illustration to 1896 edition.
Mark Twain bibliography
Facsimile of the original 1st edition
In Love With Technology, as Long as It's Dusty
The New York Times
Twain Rolls On To New Heights
The New York Times
The American Claimant
Project Gutenberg
Special Collections
UC Berkeley Library
The American Claimant

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