Showing results by narrator "Richard Henzel" in All Categories

As a cub river pilot, one of Mark Twain’s masters was a pilot named George Ealer, who recited Shakespeare by the hour - from memory - and who was a virulent opponent of the notion that the Shakespeare plays and poems were in truth written by Sir Francis Bacon. At first, young Sam Clemens agreed with his teacher and boss, but he soon realized that it was no fun for the pilot to argue with someone who agreed with him all of the time.

Well known as a "children's book," The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is rich in eloquent and sophisticated language, and filled with realistic characters who become locked in life and death struggles.There is a murder, stolen treasure, and death by starvation. Add to that a love story, a buddy story, and a family drama.

Is man's sole impulse the securing of his own approval? Do we love God or do we just love God's frequent-prayer program? Is what we call self-sacrifice really self-delusion? What's the Christian amount to tip a waiter? A spirited and passionate discussion.

Mark Twain, incensed by increasing religious and political imperialism around the globe, characterizes a large nation's invasion and occupation of a smaller country as the "strange and over-showy onslaught of an elephant upon a nest of field mice, on the pretext that the mice had squeaked an insolence at him conduct which 'no self-respecting government could allow to pass unavenged' as Mr. Chamberlain said. Was that a good pretext in a small case when it had not been a good pretext in a large one?- for only recently Russia had affronted the elephant three times and survived...."

Thirty years after his death, Capt. Stormfield is still speeding across the universe, on his way to the next life, though he doesn't know yet where or when his journey will end. It's not a spoiler to tell you that he does get into heaven (it's in the title after all), but you may be surprised at some of the customs, characters, and spectacles he finds there.  

Studio recordings of the best monologues from Richard Henzel’s one man play Mark Twain in Person. Selections include the familiar and the rarely heard excerpts from Mark Twain’s writings, speeches, and private remarks, mixed with improvisational moments as well.

A man of many firsts, Mark Twain was the first author to use the typewriter and the first person to have a telephone in his home (which no doubt made him the first person to swear at tech support!). He patented the accordion file, the fountain pen, and adjustable suspenders. And when he published "deleted scenes" from Pudd'nhead Wilson as Those Extraordinary Twins, he became the first publisher to include "bonus tracks" as well as the finished work.

Young Lord Berkeley has discovered that his family's title and wealth was fraudulently obtained by previous generations, and announces to his his father, Lord Rossmore, that he intends to travel to America, there to return the Earldom of Rossmore to the rightful heir, along with all of its wealth, titles, and privilege, and to begin his life over again—"begin it right—begin it on the level of mere manhood, unassisted by factitious aids, and succeed or fail by pure merit or the want of it."

In this unabridged recording of one of Mark Twain's lesser-known short stories, the "campaign of crime" referred to was a rash of robberies, arson, racketeering, and murders in Connecticut, where the author was living at that time. Alternatively funny, disturbing, and self-revelatory, an abridged performance of this piece has been part of Richard Henzel's Jefferson Award nominated stage show Mark Twain In Person since 1979.

Thirteen-year-old Huck runs away from his alcoholic and abusive father in a stolen canoe. Hiding on a wooded island, he comes upon a slave named Jim, who is also fleeing--from slavery. The two set off down the Mississippi on a piece of a raft, each in search of his own kind of freedom.

Hank Morgan is a mechanic, an engineer, and a foreman at the Colt Arms Factory. One day he gets into an argument, "conducted with crowbars," with an employee known as "Hercules." A blow to Hank's head sends him back to King Arthur's England in the Sixth Century.

There are adventures galore on the way to that climactic episode in the mining camps of northern California, as young Sam Clemens sets off on the Overland Stage line, recording the fauna, flora, and humanity of The Wild West. He tastes condemned army bacon, "slumgullion," and Mormon "Valley Tan." He buys a genuine Mexican plug. He hazards death from freezing in a blizzard, drowning in a desert, dissolving in an alkali lake, and roasting in a forest fire.

In 1882, Mark Twain decided to write a memoir of his experiences growing up with, and later steering steamboats on, the Mississippi River. Following a history of the exploration and early commerce, he takes us with him as he "learns the river" and becomes a licensed pilot. The third part of the audiobook tells of his return to the river in preparation for this book. This important geographical phenomenon has been America's greatest single source of progress - and pain.

Pudd'nhead Wilson, like many other Mark Twain books, was read aloud by the author to his wife and daughters, chapter by chapter, as it was being written.

Mark Twain expected to create a new form of autobiography in which "I shall talk about the matter which for the moment interests me, and cast it aside and talk about something else the moment its interest for me is exhausted." These transcriptions of his off-the-cuff telling of his own history allow one to feel as if he is listening to the great storyteller one-on-one.

The death of Mark Twain's daughter, Jean Clemens, occurred early in the morning of December 24, 1909. A few hours later Twain was writing steadily. "I am setting it down," he said, "everything. It is a relief to me to write it. It furnishes me an excuse for thinking."

This is the story of Mark Twain's brief career as a Confederate soldier at the beginning of the American Civil War. Mark Twain's "private history" is told from the viewpoint of "someone who set out to do something in the war, but didn't". What starts out as a kind of class reunion/camping trip quickly becomes a series of frightful near misses with a determined and deadly foe, and ends in painful, premature death for some and a lifetime of guilty regrets for others.

One of Mark Twain’s most famous books for young people. As children, his daughters loved to act out the story in their library. It’s a carefully researched and written story, which incorporates all of Mark Twain’s signature humor, evil villains, and compelling plotlines. Yes, it was written with young people in mind, but it is surely enjoyable to listeners of all ages.