 |
Mark Twain,
aka Samuel Clemens, came to San Francisco in the early 1860s and found
work as a reporter for the Daily Morning Call. The failed Confederate soldier
and miner found his calling after writing burlesque under the name Josh
and comic tales in the style of Artemus Ward. In San Francisco, Twain lived
at the Occidental Hotel and fondly compared Montgomery Street to Main Street
in his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri for he had made many acquaintances
in a short time and was widely recognized walking along the downtown street.
In the offices of the Golden Era at 732 Montgomery Street, which would
have been in the Jackson Square area pictured here, Twain worked with a
group of young writers including Bret Harte,
who Twain credited with developing his talent. "He changed me from an awkward
utterer of coarse grotesqueness to a writer of paragraphs and chapters
that have found a certain favor in the eyes of some of the very decentest
people," Twain said. As a reporter he covered the police, theatre, and
society. Before going on to worldwide fame as the author of The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer and other works, his articles exposed police brutality, abuse
of the Chinese, and political corruption. For the Golden Era, he wrote,
"The Washoe Wit: Mark Twain on the Rampage."
Montgomery
Block |
