The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
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| The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County | |
| Author | Mark Twain |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short Stories |
| Publisher | C. H. Webb |
| Publication date | 1867[citation needed] |
| Media type | print (hardback & paperback) |
| Followed by | The Innocents Abroad |
"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is an 1867 book[citation needed] of short stories by Mark Twain. Twain's first book, it collects 27 stories that were previously published in magazines and newspapers. The title story first appeared in print in 1865 and has also been published as "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog." In it, the narrator retells a story he heard from a bartender, Simon Wheeler, at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, about the gambler Jim Smiley. Twain describes him: "If he even seen a straddle bug start to go anywheres, he would bet you how long it would take him to get to—to wherever he going to, and if you took him up, he would foller that straddle bug to Mexico but what he would find out where he was bound for and how long he was on the road."
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[edit] Publication history
Twain first wrote the title short story at the request of his friend Artemus Ward, for inclusion in an upcoming book. By the time Twain had finalized the story, that book was already nearing publication, so Ward sent it instead to the Saturday Press, where it appeared in the November, 1865 edition. Twain's story was immensely popular, and was soon printed in many different magazines and newspapers. This led Twain to use it to anchor his own first book which appeared in 1867, with a first issue run of only 1,000 copies.
[edit] Plot summary of the story
The narrator is sent on an errand to visit an old man, Simon Wheeler by a friend to find an old acquaintance of his. This is clearly a joke, because once the narrator gets there and asks about the acquaintance, Wheeler immediately begins to tell a long, droll story about Jim Smiley.
Jim Smiley is addicted to gambling. He bets on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog pup, Andrew Jackson, and other dogs. One day, a stranger to the town agrees to bet on a frog jumping higher than Jim's frog, Dan'l Webster. When Jim is not looking, the stranger pours lead bullets into the frog's mouth, weighing it down so that he wins the bet.
At this point in the story, Wheeler is called by someone on the front porch. When his attention is turned, the narrator makes his leave.
[edit] French retranslation
Upon discovering a French translation of this story, Twain re-translated the story, word for word and keeping the French grammar structure, back into English. He then published all three versions under the title "The Jumping Frog: in English, then in French, and then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil"[1]
[edit] Adaptation
Lukas Foss composed The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, an opera in two scenes with libretto by Jean Karsavina, based on Twain's story. The opera premiered on May 18, 1950, at Indiana University. [2]
The story was also adapted as a scene in The Adventures of Mark Twain, in which Mark Twain retells the story in short to Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn and Becky Thatcher.
[edit] References
- ^ The Jumping Frog: in English, then in French, and then Clawed Back into a Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil
- ^ The Jumping Frog Of Calaveras County
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Online text at the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library
- Stephen Railton's Mark Twain in His Times project
- Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum
- Images of First Edition (1867)
- Official Web site for JUMP - a documentary on the history of Calaveras County's Jumping Frog Jubilee
