Mark Twain's Memory-Builder: A Game for Acquiring and Retaining All Sorts of Facts and Dates

TWAIN, Mark

Published by S.L. Clemens, [Hartford], 1891

About this Item

Board Game. Approximately 9" x 13.5" x .25" Cloth-covered wooden frame with printed card stock on front and rear. Slight waviness and a little age-toning on the cardstock but the game surface itself unused, near fine. On the front is the game board itself - essentially a grid of holes meant to be pierced by pins and on the rear are the extensive rules for the game, signed in print at the end "Mark Twain." Apparently Clemens developed the game while finishing his novel *Huckberry Finn* as a way to help his daughter remember historical dates. When it was finally marketed several years later the board was accompanied by a small pamphlet of historical facts and a box of different colored straight pins, [lacking here, although a later photocopy of the contents of the pamphlet is present]. The overly complicated instructions essentially describe a point system in which historic dates are divided into three categories: "Accessions" (of kings, presidents, and various other rulers, 10 points), "Battles" (5 points), and "Minor Events" (births, deaths, inventions, or other notable happenings, 1 point). Never one to avoid hyperbole, Twain touts the game's potential effect on America's youth in his typical style: "Many public-school children seem to know only two dates 1492 and 4th of July; and as a rule they don't know what happened on either occasion. It is because they have not had a chance to play this game." Despite such high hopes the game failed to catch on. Scarce.

Seller Inventory # 564023

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mark Twain's Memory-Builder: A Game for Acquiring and Retaining All Sorts of Facts and Dates
• Publisher: S.L. Clemens, [Hartford]
• Publication Date: 1891
• Binding: Unbound
• Condition: Near Fine