The Alphabet and Simplified Spelling
Written by Mark Twain
Narrated by Larry G. Jones
5/5
()
About this audiobook
Mark Twain gave this speech at an event honoring Andrew Carnegie, who helped found the Simplified Spelling Board. Twain mentions how uncomfortable it is to only receive compliments when one is the guest of honor, so he critiques Carnegie’s “pestiferous” ideas about spelling reform. In doing so, he provides his own suggestions for fixing “this present silly alphabet, which I fancy was invented by a drunken thief.” This speech is a fine example of the brazen humor that made Twain himself famous.
Mark Twain
Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, left school at age 12. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher, which furnished him with a wide knowledge of humanity and the perfect grasp of local customs and speech manifested in his writing. It wasn't until The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), that he was recognized by the literary establishment as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. Toward the end of his life, plagued by personal tragedy and financial failure, Twain grew more and more cynical and pessimistic. Though his fame continued to widen--Yale and Oxford awarded him honorary degrees--he spent his last years in gloom and desperation, but he lives on in American letters as "the Lincoln of our literature."
More audiobooks from Mark Twain
A Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Alphabet and Simplified Spelling
Related audiobooks
Advice to Youth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Houdini: The Life of the Great Escape Artist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Prince and the Pauper Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Man Without a Country Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twain's Humor - Collected Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Diaries of Adam and Eve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last of the Mohicans Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fun Family Jokes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOtter This World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhat Is Man? Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTreasure Island Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buddy's Tail Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Stories for 7+ year olds: Collection 3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYou're So Punny! Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeter Pan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMark Twain An Autobiography Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ransom of Red Chief Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Call of the Wild Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTom Sawyer, Detective Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Classic American Short Stories Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mark Twain: How to Tell a Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5B. J. Harrison Reads The Million Pound Bank Note Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGifts Of The Magi Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5George Washington: The Rise of America's First President Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOh Yikes! History's Grossest Moments Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRobert Louis Stevenson - Treasure Island Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mr Bones: Twenty Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
History For You
The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Secret History of the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Demon Copperhead: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Little Book of Hygge: Danish Secrets to Happy Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Swingtime for Hitler: Goebbels’s Jazzmen, Tokyo Rose, and Propaganda That Carries a Tune Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/577 Days of February: Living and Dying in Ukraine, Told by the Nation’s Own Journalists Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5All the Sinners Bleed: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5An American Marriage: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mary Magdalene: Women, the Church, and the Great Deception Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Small Mercies: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World--and Why Things Are Better Than You Think Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Razorblade Tears: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lafayette in the Somewhat United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Korean War: A History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Valiant Women: The Extraordinary American Servicewomen Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Alphabet and Simplified Spelling
1 rating0 reviews