{"product_id":"2940013083837","title":"MARK TWAIN A BIOGRAPHY","description":"MARK TWAIN--A BIOGRAPHY\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI. ANCESTORS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn page 492 of the old volume of Suetonius, which Mark Twain read until\u003cbr\u003ehis very last day, there is a reference to one Flavius Clemens, a man\u003cbr\u003eof wide repute \"for his want of energy,\" and in a marginal note he has\u003cbr\u003ewritten:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I guess this is where our line starts.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt was like him to write that. It spoke in his whimsical fashion the\u003cbr\u003eattitude of humility, the ready acknowledgment of shortcoming, which was\u003cbr\u003ehis chief characteristic and made him lovable--in his personality and in\u003cbr\u003ehis work.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHistorically, we need not accept this identity of the Clemens ancestry.\u003cbr\u003eThe name itself has a kindly meaning, and was not an uncommon one in\u003cbr\u003eRome. There was an early pope by that name, and it appears now and\u003cbr\u003eagain in the annals of the Middle Ages. More lately there was a Gregory\u003cbr\u003eClemens, an English landowner who became a member of Parliament under\u003cbr\u003eCromwell and signed the death-warrant of Charles I. Afterward he was\u003cbr\u003etried as a regicide, his estates were confiscated, and his head was\u003cbr\u003eexposed on a pole on the top of Westminster Hall.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTradition says that the family of Gregory Clemens did not remain in\u003cbr\u003eEngland, but emigrated to Virginia (or New Jersey), and from them, in\u003cbr\u003edirect line, descended the Virginia Clemenses, including John Marshall\u003cbr\u003eClemens, the father of Mark Twain. Perhaps the line could be traced, and\u003cbr\u003eits various steps identified, but, after all, an ancestor more or less\u003cbr\u003eneed not matter when it is the story of a descendant that is to be\u003cbr\u003ewritten.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079266353392,"sku":"2940013083837","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013083837_p0.jpg?v=1763576541","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013083837","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}