“THE NOTORIOUS JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERAS COUNTY” BY: MARK TWAIN

MISSOURI’S MOST FAMOUS SON Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on Nov. 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri; he was the 6 th child in his family. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, a frequent stop for steamboats traveling down the Mississippi River. Hannibal would be featured in several of Twain’s works. After his father’s death when he was 12, he became a printer’s apprentice and editorial assistant for a newspaper; this is where he discovered his love of writing. At 17, he moved to St. Louis and became a licensed river pilot; it is at this time that he became known as Mark Twain, a name which means “safe to navigate.”

A WRITER EMERGES Twain began writing during the Civil War when the river trade was brought to a standstill. He worked as a newspaper reporter and began writing his own fiction. He married Olivia Langdon in 1870; though they had 4 children, only one survived past their 20s. Today, there are no living descendants of Mark Twain. He gained fame as a writer with the short story “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” which was published in He died April 21, 1910; his home is now a museum and Calaveras County is California holds a Jumping Frog Jubilee every 3 rd weekend in May. Today, Twain still has a strong following.

A BUSY WRITER Twain wrote 28 books and numerous short stories, letters, and sketches. Some of his most famous works include: Innocents Abroad The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Pudd’nhead Wilson “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” “The War Prayer” A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court Mark Twain’s Autobiography Twain was a humorist and his autobiography was his last joke. He wrote it with instructions not to publish until 100 years after his death.

AN OFTEN QUOTED WRITER “The lack of money is the root of all evil.” “A sin takes on a new and real terror when there seems a chance that it is going to be found out.” “Now is the accepted time to make your regular, annual, good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.” “A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.” “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear---not absence of fear.” “Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first.” “Education: that which reveals to the wise, and conceals from the stupid, the vast limits of their knowledge.”

THIS STINKS OF BEING SET UP The narrator immediately suspects that he has been set up. His friend sent him to inquire about his friend’s friend Leonidas W. Smiley. The narrator is looking back and infers that his friend knew asking about Leonidas W. Smiley would prompt a long, random story about a Jim Smiley. The narrator talks to Simon Wheeler, who is fat, bald and good-natured. He finds Wheeler in a “dilapidated tavern in the decayed mining camp of Angel’s” (101). Wheeler backs the narrator “into a corner and blockaded [him] there with his chair” (101); what does this show about Wheeler and his circumstances? Wheeler thinks the men in his story are important and “admired its two heroes as men of transcendent genius in finesse” (102). Wheeler is long-winded and likes to ramble.

LUCKY JIM SMILEY Jim Smiley would bet on anything and was constantly trying to convince people to bet with him. He was also willing to switch sides just to have something to bet on. He was “uncommon lucky; he most always come out winner” (102). He sometimes bet on extremely random things, such as birds on fences. What does all of this reveal about Jim Smiley? Smiley had two secret weapons: the fifteen-minute nag and the bull-pup dog named Andrew Jackson. Both seemed incapable of winning, but almost always pulled through at the end and won for Smiley. What is Twain poking fun of here? What could he also be warning people about? Smiley had a match to every bet and “you couldn’t fetch nothing for him to bet on but he’d match you” (103).

DAN’L WEBSTER Smiley caught a frog, named him Dan’l Webster, and trained him. The frog could perform tricks and beat every other frog at jumping. One day a stranger came into the camp and Smiley bet him that Dan’l Webster could “outjump any frog in Calaveras county” (104). The stranger says he doesn’t have a frog, “but if [he] had a frog, [he’d] bet [him]” (104); Smiley wants to bet him for $40, a huge amount in that time (Twain only made $200 a month as a river pilot). Uh oh…Smiley tells the stranger, “if you’ll hold my box a minute, I’ll go and get you a frog” (104). Why would you leave your frog with the man you’re betting with? Cheating…the stranger fills Dan’l Webster up with buckshot while Smiley is gone.

A LOSS FOR SMILEY Full of buckshot, of course Dan’l Webster loses. When Smiley picks up his frog, he realizes he’s heavy. He turns him over and the buckshot comes out. However, the stranger has already taken off and disappeared. What is the lesson of the tale of Jim Smiley. Simon Wheeler is interrupted and the narrator chooses that moment to leave, as this story had nothing to do with the person he was looking for. What are the themes of this story? What are the lessons we see here? What effect does Wheeler’s diction have on the tale?