The Berlinica Advent Calendar, Day 1

 Advent, Advent! This is December 1, the day the traditional Advent Calendar begins. Usually, you get little shiny color pictures, or chocolates, and since chocolates is out of the question, you will get a literary gift, tied to the date.

So, yesterday, Mark Twain would have turned 190 years old, had he lived, and his writing is a fresh than the day he stepped aboard the Enterprise (by some time-traveling accident). However, did you know that Mark Twain spent half a year in Berlin? 

This was quite an adventure. He conspired with diplomats, frequented the famed salons, had breakfast with duchesses, and dined with the emperor. He suffered an “organized dog-choir club,” at his first address, which he deemed a “rag-picker's paradise,” picked a fight with the police, who made him look under his maid's petticoats, was abused by a porter, got lost on streetcars, was nearly struck down by pneumonia, and witnessed a proletarian uprising in front of his hotel Unter den Linden. He even began a novel about Wilhelmina von Preussen, the lonely Prussian princess. Read all about it here, also the stories he wrote about Berlin.

 

 

 

 

And here is your pic!

 

 

 

If you get the book at Bookshop.org, you will endorse local booksellers and NOT You-Know-Who, and also, they have a 20 percent discount today, on Cyber Monday.

Also, if you sign up for our (American) newsletter, we will send you a free e-book; Berlin - The Chicago of Europe, Twain's main story he wrote about Berlin.

 

 

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