About the Twain Classics

The "Lost" Mark Twain Stories

ONE of our Net4TV users has shared with us an extraordinary find -- a tiny 1871 book containing some Mark Twain writings we'd never seen before! We were amazed -- being Twain fans ourselves, we thought we knew them all. As we researched the background, we found out why they were unknown: they were early works, and as his fame grew and style matured, Twain was embarrassed by these initial efforts. He bought all of the plates to the book and destroyed them!

Now, through the magic of the Internet (and the expiration of copyright), we are able to share this find with the world! And, frankly, we think that Mark Twain himself wouldn't mind. In his later years, he was lionized as the most wonderful writer and humorist of his day, yet he never lost his penchant for slicing the self-important down to size. If there's Net access where he is, he's probably chuckling at seeing these reminders of his beginnings.

What's here?

We currently have two of Clemens' lesser-known titles online : Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance and Awful, Terrible Medieval Romance.  The pages are illustrated and faithfully transcribed from the original documents.

To access the stories, click 'Twain Treasures' from the entrance page or toolbar. Then, choose the story you'd like to read.  You will be taken to the first page of the work you select.

To navigate the stories, there is an interface at the bottom of each page.  One may skip forwards, backwards or to any page in that particular story.  The sidebar at the left allows one to return to the 'Twain Main' entrance, select another story or read a concise biographical essay.

Be sure to check out the Awful, Terrible Medieval Romance for a surprise ending... and a chance to interact and add your own!

What we're doing with Net4TV

Net4TV is a site designed for people surfing the Web on their televisions; today, this means primarily on WebTV. We optimize for WebTV viewing, but make sure that it's also very viewable from computer browsers.

Accessing the Web on TV is still a new thing, with a whole new set of users. We're really excited about the potential but readily admit that we're still learning how to serve it well. We don't agree at all with the "experts" who say that the people using TV are just "looking for stuff about their favorite TV programs." Our experience so far has introduced us to an intelligent community of people with wide-ranging interests -- not a "mass market" at all, but intelligent, unique individuals.

In Net4TV, we are trying a lot of different ideas. Some ideas have been suggested by our users, while others are those we've had or things that we'd like to see (after all, we're TV surfers, too). In this section, in addition to some Mark Twain stuff that's really cool, we're experimenting with providing an interface and artistic tenor appropriate to interactive reading on the TV Web.

In addition, the site will soon have an 'audiobook' mode, where the stories are read to you.  Some titles will be read in a traditional fashion, and others will include voice characterizations and ambient sound.

The Guestbook will be online soon. In the meantime, please send us your comments, criticisms, suggestions or anything else you'd like to say to us by email, and thanks again for visiting!

Cordially,

The Iacta Team