# Roughing It > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Roughing_It > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Roughing_It.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughing_It > Source revision: 1344980924 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1872 travel memoir by Mark Twain Roughing It Title page from first edition Author Mark Twain Language English Genre Travel literature Publisher American Publishing Company Publication date 1872[1] Publication place United States Media type Print Pages 608 (including title page) Preceded by The Innocents Abroad (1869) Followed by The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) ***Roughing It*** is a book of [semi-autobiographical](/source/Semi-autobiographical) [travel literature](/source/Travel_literature) by [Mark Twain](/source/Mark_Twain). It was written in 1870–71 and published in 1872,[2][3] following his first travel book *[The Innocents Abroad](/source/The_Innocents_Abroad)* (1869). *Roughing It* is dedicated to Twain's mining companion Calvin H. Higbie, later a civil engineer who died in 1914.[4] The book follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the American West during the years 1861–1867. He joined his brother [Orion Clemens](/source/Orion_Clemens), who had been appointed Secretary of the [Nevada Territory](/source/Nevada_Territory), on a [stagecoach](/source/Stagecoach) journey west. Twain consulted his brother's diary to refresh his memory and borrowed heavily from his imagination for many stories in the book. *Roughing It* illustrates many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to [Salt Lake City](/source/Salt_Lake_City), gold and silver prospecting, real-estate speculation, a journey to the [Kingdom of Hawaii](/source/Kingdom_of_Hawaii), and his beginnings as a writer. This memoir provides examples of Twain's rough-hewn humor, which became a staple of his writing in later books such as *[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](/source/The_Adventures_of_Tom_Sawyer)* (1876), *[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn](/source/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn)* (1884), and *[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court](/source/A_Connecticut_Yankee_in_King_Arthur's_Court)* (1889). ## In popular culture U.S. astronauts [Frank Borman](/source/Frank_Borman) and [Jim Lovell](/source/Jim_Lovell) read *Roughing It* aloud to pass the time aboard NASA's [Gemini VII](/source/Gemini_VII), a 14-day-long Earth orbital mission in December 1965.[5] ## Adaptations Various sections of *Roughing It* were borrowed by television series such as *[Bonanza](/source/Bonanza)*.[6] In 1960, an hour-long adaptation was broadcast on [NBC](/source/NBC) starring [Andrew Prine](/source/Andrew_Prine) and [James Daly](/source/James_Daly_(actor)).[6] A four-hour 2002 mini-series adaptation was broadcast on Hallmark Channel. Directed by [Charles Martin Smith](/source/Charles_Martin_Smith), it starred [James Garner](/source/James_Garner) as an elderly Samuel Clemens and [Robin Dunne](/source/Robin_Dunne) as a young Clemens.[6] *Roughing It* recounts midway through the book that a rich "blind lead" gold strike was discovered and claimed by a partnership of Twain, Calvin Higbie, and a mine foreman A.D. Allen, giving them well-founded hopes of being millionaires. To establish a claim, it was required that any or all of the claimants do a reasonable amount of work on the claimed strike within ten days. Due to chance happenings and failed communications between the three, the work requirement was left unfulfilled, and the forfeited but rich claim was quickly seized by others ten days after it was discovered. In the dedication of the book, Twain refers to Higbie as an "Honest Man, a Genial Comrade, and a Steadfast Friend … dedicated in Memory of the Curious Time When We Two Were Millionaires for Ten Days".[7] The prospecting story is also covered in a 1968 episode of the [syndicated television](/source/Television_syndication) [anthology series](/source/Anthology_series) *[Death Valley Days](/source/Death_Valley_Days)*, hosted by [Robert Taylor](/source/Robert_Taylor_(American_actor)). In the television dramatization, [Tom Skerritt](/source/Tom_Skerritt) plays Twain, and [Dabney Coleman](/source/Dabney_Coleman) was cast as Higbie.[8] ## Notes 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** [Facsimile of the original 1st edition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1872._Roughing_It.djvu). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Mark Twain's Most Famous Books"](https://marktwainhouse.org/about/mark-twain/major-works/). *The Mark Twain House & Museum*. Retrieved 20 May 2017. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Kaplan, Justin (1966). [*Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography*](https://books.google.com/books?id=lj1Rc68iZ0YC). New York: Simon & Schuster. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781439129319](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781439129319). Retrieved 20 May 2017. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["Mark Twain's Old Mining Partner Is Dead"](https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SU19140930&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1). [Sacramento Union](/source/Sacramento_Union). September 30, 1914. Retrieved December 7, 2018. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** ["*To the Moon* transcript"](https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2610tothemoon.html). *NOVA*. PBS. Retrieved 20 May 2017. 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Rasmussen_6-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Rasmussen_6-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Rasmussen_6-2) Rasmussen, Kent R. (1995). [*Critical Companion to Mark Twain*](https://books.google.com/books?id=VYsavOLN8HQC). New York, NY: Facts on File, Inc. p. 444. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9781438108520](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9781438108520). Retrieved 20 May 2017. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["*Roughing It* by Mark Twain"](https://archive.org/stream/roughingitbymark01twaiuoft/roughingitbymark01twaiuoft_djvu.txt). Retrieved December 7, 2018. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Ten Day Millionaires on *Death Valley Days*"](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0556752/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm#cast). *[Internet Movie Database](/source/Internet_Movie_Database)*. Retrieved May 4, 2019. ## External links English [Wikisource](/source/Wikisource) has original text related to this article: **[*Roughing It*](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/en:Roughing_It)** Wikimedia Commons has media related to [Roughing It](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Roughing_It). - *[Roughing It](https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/mark-twain/roughing-it)* at [Standard Ebooks](/source/Standard_Ebooks) - *[Roughing It](https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/3177)* at [Project Gutenberg](/source/Project_Gutenberg) - [*Roughing It*](https://librivox.org/search?title=Roughing+It&author=Twain&reader=&keywords=&genre_id=0&status=all&project_type=either&recorded_language=&sort_order=catalog_date&search_page=1&search_form=advanced) public domain audiobook at [LibriVox](/source/LibriVox) - Twain Mark. [*Roughing It*](http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/roughingit/rihp.html). University of Virginia. Text plus additional background material. - ["3 short radio episodes from *Roughing It*"](https://web.archive.org/web/20090506053845/http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/twain.html). *[California Legacy Project](/source/California_Legacy_Project)*. Archived from [the original](http://californialegacy.org/radio_anthology/scripts/twain.html) on 2009-05-06. v t e Mark Twain Bibliography Novels The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss Short stories "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" 1601 "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "A Double Barrelled Detective Story" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "Advice for Good Little Girls" Collections Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories Plays Is He Dead? Essays "The Awful German Language" "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" "Advice to Youth" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth Nonfiction Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain (Chapters from My Autobiography) King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Christian Science Speeches "Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" "Votes for Women" Places and events Family cabin Birthplace State Historic Site State Park Boyhood home and museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Quarry Farm Mark Twain House Stormfield Twain–Ament indemnities controversy Popular culture Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Readers Award Mark Twain Tonight! The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) Mark Twain (2001 documentary) Twain and Shaw Do Lunch (2011 play) Mark Twain: The Musical Family Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Jane Lampton Clemens (mother) Orion Clemens (brother) Related Jap Herron Center For Mark Twain Studies Mark Twain (book) Mark Twain National Forest Mark Twain Tree National Tom Sawyer Days Authority control databases Open Library --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Roughing It](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughing_It) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roughing_It?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.