Ever since I first read, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", Samuel Clemens has fascinated me. Not only did he master writing in the later years of his life but too his new found love for the game of pocket billiards.
In the later years of his life he aspired to play good pocket billiards and had a deep appreciation for good players. Willie Hoppe was perhaps his favorite and while living in New York he would often go and watch Straight Pool tournaments. It is said he would sit in the crowd and commentate the match and applaud the players when they executed a shot of brilliance, which he so deeply desired to master himself. Could you imagine having perhaps the greatest author of all time commentating this year at DCC?
I've recently been compiling some research on Mr. Clemens (aka Mark Twain for those that do not know) and have found that he would play pool for 8 to 12 hours a day sometimes. He would start playing after lunch and would continue until mid-night at the earliest, and sometimes end up playing until 3 or 4 in the morning. He would only take a 1-hour break for dinner, and then right back to it. He admired playing safety as well as anything, and reportedly had a bad temper when he was lucked out on or beaten. One observer claimed his resiliency at the table was impeccable for a man at his age (Twain didn't start playing til his late 50s) and that had smoked cigars since he was 12 or 13. He would outlast his opponents and grind them down (Bartram must be related) while never speaking a word during play. If any discussion needed to transpire he would sit on his couch and take a couple puffs of his cigar until the matter was either handled or not, and then back to the table for more silence.
Most interesting to me was his desire to gamble at the game, and would often give prop bets to his opponents on how many points they could run. Apparently he was known for having the best of his bets and didn’t book to many losers; a modern day lock artist. One account talks about him involved in 500 dollars worth of action ( must have been like 5,000 dollars at the turn of the 20th century) and how he would gloat about his victories.
Anyhow, I thought this was worthy enough of passing along to you folks on here. There is much more on Samuel Clemens and a whole chapter actually titled “Billiards” in on of his biographies by Albert Paine. If anybody is interested you should be able to find it on Google Books.
Trivia: Why did he coin himself "Mark Twain" when he started writing? If you have to use google go right ahead and get educated on one of the most fascinating people in history, in my opinion of course.
In the later years of his life he aspired to play good pocket billiards and had a deep appreciation for good players. Willie Hoppe was perhaps his favorite and while living in New York he would often go and watch Straight Pool tournaments. It is said he would sit in the crowd and commentate the match and applaud the players when they executed a shot of brilliance, which he so deeply desired to master himself. Could you imagine having perhaps the greatest author of all time commentating this year at DCC?
I've recently been compiling some research on Mr. Clemens (aka Mark Twain for those that do not know) and have found that he would play pool for 8 to 12 hours a day sometimes. He would start playing after lunch and would continue until mid-night at the earliest, and sometimes end up playing until 3 or 4 in the morning. He would only take a 1-hour break for dinner, and then right back to it. He admired playing safety as well as anything, and reportedly had a bad temper when he was lucked out on or beaten. One observer claimed his resiliency at the table was impeccable for a man at his age (Twain didn't start playing til his late 50s) and that had smoked cigars since he was 12 or 13. He would outlast his opponents and grind them down (Bartram must be related) while never speaking a word during play. If any discussion needed to transpire he would sit on his couch and take a couple puffs of his cigar until the matter was either handled or not, and then back to the table for more silence.
Most interesting to me was his desire to gamble at the game, and would often give prop bets to his opponents on how many points they could run. Apparently he was known for having the best of his bets and didn’t book to many losers; a modern day lock artist. One account talks about him involved in 500 dollars worth of action ( must have been like 5,000 dollars at the turn of the 20th century) and how he would gloat about his victories.
Anyhow, I thought this was worthy enough of passing along to you folks on here. There is much more on Samuel Clemens and a whole chapter actually titled “Billiards” in on of his biographies by Albert Paine. If anybody is interested you should be able to find it on Google Books.
Trivia: Why did he coin himself "Mark Twain" when he started writing? If you have to use google go right ahead and get educated on one of the most fascinating people in history, in my opinion of course.
:grin:
