In this episode, as in many others, Mark Twain, the “bad boy” of American literature, revealed his huge delight in blasting the shams of contemporary hypocrisy.
Later, when a magazine editor apostrophized, “O that we had a Rabelais!” Mark impishly and anonymously – submitted 1601 and that same editor, a praiser of Rabelais, scathingly abused it and the sender. Mark Twain was just as irreverent as he dared be, and 1601 reveals his richest expression of sovereign contempt for overstuffed language, genteel literature, and conventional idiocies. “Born irreverent,” scrawled Mark Twain on a scratch pad, “ – like all other people I have ever known or heard of – I am hoping to remain so while there are any reverent irreverences left to make fun of.” –
