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TwainamaniaBy Meg Cullar
 It’s
unclear whether Twainamania is actually a condition, but if it is, then
Baylor English professor Joe Fulton has it. Fulton’s recent research on
Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was funded by a
gift from Baylor’s Centennial Class of 1945 and featured in the winter
2009 issue of the Baylor Line.
Baylor’s resident expert on the famous American author calls himself a
Twainiac. That means, he says, that he suffers from “Delirium Clemens.”
(“That one never gets old!” he notes.) And just to prove it, the Line took a tour of Fulton’s office, which is full of the evidence of his condition--artifacts that he calls Twainiana.
It starts with the neck tie, which Fulton (pictured in photo 1)
purchased at the Twain Museum at Elmira College in Elmira, New York.
The town is near Quarry Farm, which was Twain’s home, and the college
now owns the property, including a museum and extensive archives where
Fulton has done research.
The
tie features, among other things, the slogan “Known to everyone--liked
by all,”
 which was the slogan for cigars marketed under the name of
Mark Twain Cigars. Twain was ahead of his time in the realm of
celebrity marketing, Fulton notes. He had his name trademarked and sold
various products under the brand of Mark Twain.
Another favorite artifact of Fulton’s is his little Mark Twain
bobblehead (photo 2), which is about four inches high. It was a gift
from his wife and kids, but at some point it took a tumble off of
Fulton’s crowded desk, and poor Mr. Twain was cut off at the ankles.
That’s why he’s sporting the rubber bands--they keep him all in one
piece.
 Another gift from the family was the Christmas ornament of the book Tom Sawyer (photo 3). Fans of the movie It’s a Wonderful Life
will remember that, at the end, Clarence the Angel--who earns his wings
after showing George Bailey what it would be like if he had never been
born--gives his copy of the beloved book to George with the
inscription: “Dear George, Remember no man is a failure who has
friends. Thanks for the wings. Love, Clarence.” All of that is printed
on the tiny ornament, which resides not on a Christmas tree, but in
Fulton’s bookshelf with the other Twainiana.
Fulton
has made trips to all of Twain’s former homes and has studied the
archives at each place. Possibly the best
 known to the public is in
Hannibal, Missouri, Twain’s boyhood home. That’s where Fulton acquired
the mug with the drawing of Twain’s childhood home on it (photo 4).
 There’s
one piece of Twainiana that you’ll find only in Fulton’s office (photo
5). It’s a personal photo of Fulton (on the right) on the porch at
Quarry Farm, visiting with Jervis Langdon Jr., the grand nephew of
Twain. Langdon lived at the farm and donated the house to the college
so scholars could do research there. He was a young boy when Twain
died, but remembered meeting him and became an expert himself, often
giving lectures and frequently stopping by Quarry Farm to visit with
scholars. Fulton had his photo made with Langdon, but you’ll notice an
eerie presence in the middle. Fulton’s father, eager to indulge his
son’s scholarly pursuits, used Photoshop to insert the ghost of Mark
Twain into the photo.
Fulton
also collects Mark Twain cartoons (photo 6), of which there are an
impressive number. Cartoonist Bill
 Watterson (creator of Calvin and
Hobbes) had a college roommate who was a Twain scholar, according to
Fulton, and Watterson later did a series of cartoons featuring Twain
sayings. This one has a quote from Twain’s Puddinhead Wilson’s New Calendar: “It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.”
Fulton calls the cartoon an excellent example of the reason Twain has
remained popular for more than a century: He had an uncanny ability to
hit the nail on the head and to find the truths that never seem to
change.
No guest leaves Fulton’s office without his or her own bit of Twainiana
(photo 7). Fulton has had silver pencils made and imprinted with a
Twain quote: “The right word is lightning.” Actually, it’s a bit of a
paraphrase, since what Twain said in full was: “The difference between
the right word and the almost right word is the difference between
lightning and a lightning bug.”
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