page_1091 < previous page page_1091 next page > Page 1091 a fictionalized biography. His most ambitious book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), was an attempt to celebrate the achievements of his own age, but many modern readers find the book to be a prophecy of the horrors of modern warfare, something different from what the author intended. Mark Twain was an avid critic of American society. His novel The Gilded Age (1873, written with Charles Dudley Warner) satirizes the postCivil War boom years and Washington politics. Life on the Mississippi (1883) is a highly critical account of middle-American society. Huckleberry Finn attacks racism, as Huck gradually comes to recognize the humanity that he shares with the escaped slave Jim. After a round-the-world lecture tour in 18951896, Mark Twain became an outspoken critic of imperialism. He attacked the actions of Western nations in Africa, China, and the Philippines in various works and served as vice president of the American Congo Reform Association. In his last years, when he thought of himself as a philosopher, he wrote but did not publish many works that expressed his deterministic, pessimistic, and anti-Christian views, a good example being Letters from the Earth, first published in 1962. In Mark Twain, lust for wealth vied with his identification with the common man, the spontaneity of his writing with his inability to be a good judge of his own work, his dedication to literary realism with his fanciful imagination. Despite these contradictions his writings are greatly admired, chiefly because of their good humor, charm, and nostalgic depiction of a lost America. Everett Emerson, The Authentic Mark Twain: A Literary Biography of Samuel L. Clemens (1984); Justin Kaplan, Mister Clemens and Mark Twain (1966). EVERETT EMERSON See also Literature. Tweed Ring In the late 1860s, Boss William Marcy Tweed created a network of city officials, Democratic party workers, and contractors in New York City, which his critics dubbed the Tweed Ring. The network was a notorious instance of municipal corruption. Some historians claim it left a permanent smirch on New York City's image. After terms in the 1850s as city alderman and congressman, Tweed was appointed a supervisor of city elections. He gained popularity by supporting labor unions and the Roman Catholic church. Tweed's associates in the state legislature secured a new city charter that gave New York control of its budget and police. He himself pushed for the overhaul of the city's infrastructure, funded mostly by municipal bonds. The city soon accumulated large debts while Tweed was making money on kickbacks from contractors. For example, he formed a printing company and saw that it received all city printing contracts. Railroads and other corporations found it worthwhile to pay the nonlawyer Tweed's "firm" extravagant "retainers." Tweed's power declined dramatically once the city's financial peril became apparent. Cartoonist Thomas Nast of Harper's Weekly weakened Tweed's popularity through his caricatures of the politician; one depicted a large thumb crushing Manhattan. The costs of building a lavish courthouse, which became known as the Tweed Courthouse, aroused particular suspicion. In 1871 Tweed was arrested and prosecuted for failing to audit contractors' bills to the city for this building; his associates were not charged. He was convicted for the misdemeanor but never prosecuted for related felony charges; his sentence was one year. The state of New York sued him in the Supreme Court of New York County for over $6 million. Faced with exorbitant bail and rulings that prevented an effective defense in the suit, Tweed escaped from jail in 1875. The next year, however, he was identified in Spain and arrested. Returned to New York's Ludlow Street jail, he died before the suit was tried. See also Corruption; Nast, Thomas; Urban Bosses and Machine Politics. Tyler, John (17901862), tenth president of the United States. Tyler was the first to ascend from the vice presidency through the accident of a chief  < previous page page_1091 next page >