The American Claimant

The American Claimant is an 1892 novel by Mark Twain. Twain wrote the novel with the help of phonographic dictation, the first author (according to Twain himself) to do so. This novel was, also (according to Twain), an attempt to write a book without mention of the weather, the “first of its kind in fictitious literature” (although the first sentence of the second paragraph references weather: "...fine, breezy morning"). All other weather references are contained in an appendix, at the back of the book, which the reader is encouraged to turn to from time to time.

     The American Claimant is a comedy of mistaken identities and multiple role switches. Its cast of characters include an American enamored of British hereditary aristocracy and a British earl entranced by American democracy. The novel was written very soon after “The Wounded Knee Massacre” (1890), which was basically revenge for the 1876 “Battle of Greasy Grass” (or "Little Big Horn"). This unprovoked and wanton slaughter seemingly derailed the “Indian” resistance to Euro-American territorial incursion and cultural forced assimilation.

     Although "anti-Indian" for the first decades of his life, it seems Twain at the end re-thought his position. Could it be the titled English heir ("Berkely Rossmore," who even dressed up as a cowboy and took the name “Howard Tracy” to remain incognito) was meant to represent wealthy Euro-Americans, whereas the uncouth and eccentric American ("Mulberry Sellers") was a symbol of the "Indians?”