Today’s Evocative Word from Mark Twain: IMBECILE
PRE-ORDER Today for June 23 launch: What Mark Twain Learned Me ’bout Public Speakin‘
How Mark Twain Used Today’s Evocative Word “IMBECILE” to get ’em evocating!
**********************************************************
“Dear Mrs. H.,—I am forever your debtor for reminding me of that curious passage in my life. During the first year or two after it happened, I could not bear to think of it.
My pain and shame were so intense, and my sense of having been an IMBECILE so settled, established and confirmed, that I drove the episode entirely from my mind—and so all these twenty-eight or twenty-nine years I have lived in the conviction that my performance of that time was coarse, vulgar and destitute of humor.”
SOURCE: Mark Twain letter sent June 11, 1906 to an admirer. The letter related to a speech Twain gave in honor of the seventieth birthday of John Greenleaf
Whittier, at the Hotel Brunswick, Boston, December 17, 1877. Twain totally BOMBED on that night and was much criticized by the media for uncouth and
insensitive remarks.
*****
You can learn why Twain worried why his “performance of that time was coarse, vulgar and destitute of humor” in What Mark Twain Learned Me ’bout Public Speakin‘ which provides wit and wisdom on speech writing and speech-making while also providing examples of success and failure from the great man. Lessons that will “learn* you” to craft better speeches and presentations.
*“When I say I’ll learn (‘Teach’ is not in the river vocabulary) a man the river, I mean it. And you can depend on it, I’ll learn him or kill him.’ Life on the Mississippi – Mark Twain
PRE-ORDER Today for June 23 launch: What Mark Twain Learned Me ’bout Public Speakin‘
Mark Twain, long recognized as a wonderful author and humorist was possibly THE most successful professional speaker ever. He enthralled audiences from Berlin to Boston, from Montana to Melbourne with storytelling full of humor, pathos and humanity. He was regarded by many as an exceptional impromptu speaker, except he wasn’t! Twain worked diligently at his craft, researching, writing, rewriting and memorizing his material.
In this book, I showcase the words of Twain and his contemporaries via a unique MARK TWAIN acronym to highlight what Mark Twain Learned Me ’bout Public Speaking. The nine lessons provide a memorable and implementable framework for great speech making and presentation.
The MARK TWAIN acronym spells:
Message preparation
Audience
Relate to audience
Know your objective
Titter and humor
Wait (the Pause)
Anecdote
Involve
Narration and Stagecraft
PRE-ORDER Today for June 23 launch: What Mark Twain Learned Me ’bout Public Speakin‘