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Annually I send this letter to about 40 papers and commentators. Once it got published by the Chicago Tribune. But at least I am able to irritate someone in the new rooms.

Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn

Latter day scholars abandon intellectual integrity for popular esteem by condemning Mark Twain’s great American novel Huckleberry Finn published December 1884. Twain was not only a great writer, but a gifted commentator on this country and its people. This historical novel allowed him to develop a point about blacks as he crafted the work.

One passage related by Fredrick Douglass in his autobiography always stayed with me. After speaking to an abolitionist audience, Douglass considered the evening a great success, because he concluded his talk believing these people were convinced, he was equally human with them. He mentioned this as a significant event, because even the strongest supporters of black freedom questioned whether these people were equally human, but Twain did not.

Mark Twain came saying that even poor white trash like Huck Finn could figure out that “Nigger Jim” was just like him. Twain used precise choice of words to wash away the entire pretense built up from etiquette, education, wealth, attire, etc., which people acquire to form opinions of themselves and others. Because of Twain’s extraordinary word picture what remained on that raft were two people who could look into each other’s eyes and see the true essence of their existence.

In his final indictment, Twain through Huck Finn tells the reader that the accoutrements of civilization can prevent one from being human and recognizing humanity in others. Huck decides to light out for the territories rather than be civilized.

I find that lesson timeless and magical.