Mark Twain for Horse Lovers: True and Imaginary Adventures with Horses and Their Kin

by R. Kent Rasmussen

Overview

Mark Twain’s affection for cats is well-known, and no one would be surprised to hear he also liked dogs. Less well known, however, is his admiration for horses and their kin, donkeys and mules. Clearly fascinated with them, he wrote more about Equine animals than he did about either cats or dogs combined. This book offers a collection of Mark Twain’s funniest and most compelling writings about equine animals. Organized chronologically within categories such as “Uneasy Rider,” “Sorry Steeds,” and “Eccentric Equines,” the textual selections cover his early trips out west, his travels to Europe and Middle East, and his later years. The book also includes horse stories drawn purely from his imagination, including the short novella A Horse’s Tale. Other equine vignettes are drawn from such Twain’s classics as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” Huckleberry Finn, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493091720
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/18/2025
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

R. Kent Rasmussen is the holder of a UCLA doctorate in history and a retired reference-book editor. He has long been recognized as a leading world authority on Mark Twain, about whom he has published fourteen books. Those volumes include such now-standard reference works as Mark Twain A toZ; its expanded revision, Critical Companion to Mark Twain; and The Quotable Mark Twain. Books that he has edited include four volumes of critical essays; several collections of Mark Twain’s own writings, including the Penguin Classics edition of Autobiographical Writings, Mark Twain for Dog Lovers, and Mark Twain’s Tales of the Macabre & Mysterious—the latter two both Lyons Press publication. He lives in Thousand Oaks, California and is now working on his sixteenth Mark Twain book.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS
 
Introduction
 
Note on Texts
 
PART I: Uneasy Rider
  1. Saddle Up!
  2. The Genuine Mexican Plug
  3. The World’s Poorest Horseman?
  4. A Ride Too Far
  5. Diffidence about Horses
 
PART II: Happy Trails
  6. The Hawaiian Love of Horses
  7. A Ragged and Uncouth Procession
  8. A New and Exhilarating Sensation
  9. Downsized Donkeys
 
PART III: Horse Trading
  10. Shrewd Hawaiians
  11. A Reckless Little Mule
  12. A Hard Lot in Lebanon
  13. The Omnibuses of Egypt
  14. The Man Who Put up at Gadsby’s
 
PART IV: Sorry Steeds
  15. Putting the Cart Before the Horses
  16. An Infernally Lazy Blood Relation
  17. The Monotony of Mules
  18. Horse Sense
  19. A Magnificent Ruin!
  20. An Old Gray Mare
 
PART V: Eccentric Equines
  21. The Fifteen-minute Nag
  22. Fitz Smythe’s Hungry Hoss
  23. Appetites That Nothing Will Satisfy
  24. You Can Lead a Horse to Water, but ...
  25. The Shiest Horse in the World
  26. Stylish Asses
  27. Racing Mules
 
PART VI: Daredevil Riders
  28. Bemis’s Buffalo Adventure
  29. Pony Riders
  30. A “Mule Thing” to Be Respected
  31. The Mexican Plug Remembered
  32. A Real Bully Circus
 
PART VII: Unhappy Horsey Happenstances
  33. Lost in the Dark
  34. The Horses Know the Way ...
  35. A Well-bred Horse vs. an Underbred Rider
  36. A Horse of the “Spanish Persuasion”
  37. A Big Vicious Colt
  38. The Worst Place to Ride a Donkey
  39. Topsy-turvy Horses
 
PART VIII: War Horses
  40. Saint Joan Learns to Ride
  41. Bringing up the Rear
  42. Horses and Armor Make a Bad Mix
  43. “Slim Jim” vs. the Tower of Iron
  44. Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
  45. A Rough Rider on Wheels
 
PART IX: Closer to Home and Family
  46. Milk Run
  47. Clara’s Magic Calf
  48. How Not to Ride a Donkey
  49. Preventing Cruelty to Animals
  50. The Most Precious Horses in the World
  51. The Maude Squad