Art & Design &Literature Entropy | 30 Nov 2011
Mark Twain celebrated in a Google Doodle
Google celebrates Mark Twain’s 176th birthday today with its latest doodle, which depicts a famous scene from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
“Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. He surveyed the fence, and all gladness left him and a deep melancholy settled down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden.”- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The full-width illustration greeting web users logging on to the search engine portrays an episode in the novel in which the protagonist is made to whitewash a fence. Resembling a drawing from a children’s story book, the picture appears to show Tom and his friend Ben at various stages of the paintwork job, with the ‘e’ and half the ‘l’ of “Google” subjected to their brush
Although the writer’s 176th birthday may seem a somewhat arbitrary milestone to mark, he remains a towering figure in American literature whose works enjoy an enduring popularity today.
Born on 30 November 1835 in the town of Florida, Missouri, Twain penned Tom Sawyer in 1876 and its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in 1885. The two novels are his most famous works and count among America’s best-loved tales.
The scene from Tom Sawyer chosen by Google to celebrate the anniversary of his creator’s birth sees Tom painting the fence as punishment by Aunt Polly for dirtying his clothes in a fight with a boy from St Louis.
Twain is known and loved for his combination of rich humour and sharp social commentary on life along the Mississippi river during the pre-civil war period, and noted for his pioneering use of the vernacular.
Via © guardian.co.uk
on 01 Dec 2011 at 12:26 pm 1.Michele said …
I read this book at 12 and I remember so well this particular scene!
Great at any age…