Roughing It (Signet Classics)
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Premium Content The Spoken vs. The Written Account of "His Grandfather's Old Ram"

By Michael B. Pitt - November 24, 2002

In 1895, Mark Twain put his formula for how to tell a humorous story down on paper. The speaker should know how and when to deliver the punchline, learn to be apparently indifferent to his own humor, and exhibit mastery of the pause. Some years later, in his autobiography, Twain explains how he, in fact, had to learn to follow his own advice. He…

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