Following the Equator and Anti-imperialist Essays
by Mark Twain 
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In 1895, bankrupted by his investments in the doomed Paige typesetter and by the collapse of his publishing house, sixty-year-old Mark Twain was forced to embark on a world lecture tour to raise money to pay his growing debts. Following the Equator, Twain's final travel book, was the result. His readers circumnavigate the globe with one of the world's most entertaining travel companions--to Honolulu and the Fiji Islands, Sydney and Melbourne, Tasmania, Ceylon, Bombay, Calcutta, Cape Town and show more Johannesburg. Twain blends whimsical anecdote, sharp-eyed commentary, and serious social critique, assailing the contempt of whites for native traditions, and noting the striking similarity between slavery and the colonial experience. In "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" and "King Leopold's Soliloquy," also included in this volume, Twain strips the imperialist powers naked and bears eloquent witness to the unspeakable crimes they perpetrate in the name of what he calls the "Blessings-of-Civilization Trust." show lessTags
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This is a personal note about pagination; not to be confused with a review: This book is one of my more unique piece in that it's numbering system restarts itself a few different times within the book. Allow me to describe my volume and this will explain my pagination:
40 Front Matter (Roman numerals) pages
815 numbered pages
21 unpaged and plates combined
876 total pages
For those interested, breaking it down a bit more, as it appears:
xl......Front Matter (40 pages)
712...Following the Equator
2.......Unpaged
16.....To the Person Sitting in Darkness
6.......Unpaged
50.....King Leopold's Sililoquy
12.....6 unnumbered plates (photographs with blank backside 6x2=12)
37.....Afterword and remaining numbered pages.
1.......Unpaged
40 Front Matter (Roman numerals) pages
815 numbered pages
21 unpaged and plates combined
876 total pages
For those interested, breaking it down a bit more, as it appears:
xl......Front Matter (40 pages)
712...Following the Equator
2.......Unpaged
16.....To the Person Sitting in Darkness
6.......Unpaged
50.....King Leopold's Sililoquy
12.....6 unnumbered plates (photographs with blank backside 6x2=12)
37.....Afterword and remaining numbered pages.
1.......Unpaged
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2,755+ Works 208,805 Members
Mark Twain was born Samuel L. Clemens in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He worked as a printer, and then became a steamboat pilot. He traveled throughout the West, writing humorous sketches for newspapers. In 1865, he wrote the short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which was very well received. He then began a show more career as a humorous travel writer and lecturer, publishing The Innocents Abroad in 1869, Roughing It in 1872, and, Gilded Age in 1873, which was co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner. His best-known works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mississippi Writing: Life on the Mississippi, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Mark Twain has a Legacy Library. Legacy libraries are the personal libraries of famous readers, entered by LibraryThing members from the Legacy Libraries group.
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Contains
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Following the Equator and Anti-imperialist Essays
- Original publication date
- 1897; 1901; 1905
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Travel, Science & Nature, General Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 910.4 — History & geography Geography & travel modified standard subdivisions of Geography and travel Pirates & Shipwrecks
- LCC
- PS1310 .A1 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 19th century
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 51
- Popularity
- 593,329
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.25)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 2
