Liberally flavored with dashes of western hyperbole, this mock paean by “A Son of
Adam” glorifies redheads—people like the fiery Jane Clemens and her son Sam, who were
proud of their auburn hair. The source of the title, perhaps a song, has not been
identified, nor has the precise occasion for the sketch, which appeared in the Hannibal
Daily Journal. The author may have been chastising one or more brunettes for criticizing the color
of his hair; but his cocky tone and uninhibited claims for the pristine beauty of
the color red are appealing. As Dixon Wecter remarked, the resulting sketch was unusually
“polished.”1
Neither Clemens nor Albert Bigelow Paine mentioned this sketch as one of Clemens'
early productions. But the belief (shared by Minnie Brashear, Wecter, and others)
that Clemens was indeed its author may be justified on a number of grounds. The publication
of the sketch along with Rambler's last letter (no. 16) when Orion returned to Hannibal
points to Clemens' authorship. With mock gruffness, Orion remarked under the masthead
that “ ‘Rambler’ and his enemies must stop their ‘stuff.’ It is a great bore to us,
and doubtless to the public generally.” But he added, “All our red headed friends
should read the article over the signature of ‘A son of Adam.’ We like the racy humor
of his style of writing, and invite him to continue his correspondence for this paper.”2 Ten days later Clemens began “Our Assistant's Column.” Orion also alluded with possessive
praise to this sketch on 9 June 1853, noting that it had “afforded much comfort to
the red-headed portion of the community” and that several other papers had reprinted
it,
[begin page 103]
although without crediting the Journal.3 The interest in red hair, moreover, and the preoccupation with Adam (who also intrigued
“W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab” in the political sketch “Blabbing Government Secrets!”
on 16 September 1852) also point to Clemens. Notable, too, are the fanciful mock-heroics
of the sketch, its comically single-minded accumulation of grandiose associations
with redness—a comic rhetorical technique that Clemens perfected in later sketches
like “City Marshal Perry” (no. 49) and other western burlesques.
The first printing appeared in the Hannibal Daily Journal for 13 May 1853 (p. 2). The only known copy of this printing, in MoHist, is copy-text.
So far as is known, there was no second printing in the Hannibal Weekly Journal (compare nos. 10–12), but the sketch was widely reprinted by contemporary newspapers
(SCH, p. 260). Clemens may have typeset and proofread the sketch. There are no textual
notes or emendations.
X
[begin page 104]
“Oh, She Has a Red Head!”
Turn up your nose at red headsⒺexplanatory note! What ignorance! I pity your lack of taste.
Why, man, red is the natural color of beauty! What is there that is really beautiful
or grand in Nature or Art, that is not tinted with this primordial color?
What gives to the bright flowers of the field—those painted by Nature's own hand—the
power to charm the eye and purify the mind of man, and raise his thoughts to heaven,
but the softening touches of the all-admired red!
Unless the delicate blushes of the rose mingle upon the cheek of youth—though the
features be perfect in form and proportion, and the eye beam with celestial sweetness,
no one will pronounce their possessor beautiful.
And the flag under which the proud sons of American sires find protection in every
nation under heaven, is rendered more conspicuous and beautiful by the red which mingles
in its sacred “stars and stripes.”
The Falls of Niagara are never seen to advantage, unless embellished with the rainbow's
hues.
The midnight storm may howl, and the thunders loud may roar; but how are its grandeur and beauty heightened
by the lightning's vivid flash?
Most animals are fond of red—and all children, before their tastes are corrupted, and their judgments perverted, are fond of red.
[begin page 105]
The Romans anciently regarded red hair as necessary to a beautiful lady!
Thomas Jefferson's hair was red—and Jesus Christ, our Savior—“The chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely,”Ⓔexplanatory note is said to have had “auburn” or red hair—and, although it is not stated in so many
words, I have but little doubt that Adam's hair was red—for he was made of “red earth”Ⓔexplanatory note (as his name indicates), and as the name “Adam” was given to him after he was made, it is pretty clear he must have had red hair! And the great probability
is that Eve's hair was red also, she being made of a ‘rib’ from Adam, who was made
of a lump of “red earth.”
Now, Adam and Eve before they sinned, are generally supposed to have been the most
lovely and beautiful of creation, and they, in all probability were both “red headed.”
But you, O ye deteriorated black headed descendants of an illustrious stock! have
no more taste than to glory in the evidence of your departure from original beauty!
I'm ashamed of you; I don't know but you'll repudiate your ancestry, and deny you
are descended from Adam next.
A Son of Adam.
Explanatory Notes “Oh, She Has a Red Head!”
Ⓔ red heads] In his 1855 journal Clemens copied passages from George Sumner Weaver's
Lectures on Mental Science According to the Philosophy of Phrenology which suggest a connection between the color red and the sanguine temperament. For
example, this temperament “is the burning, flaming, flashing temperament. Hence, it
hangs out its signs of fire in its red, blazing hair and countenance, its florid or
sandy skin” (N&J1, pp. 21–22; Alan Gribben, “Mark Twain, Phrenology and the ‘Temperaments’: A Study
of Pseudoscientific Influence,” American Quarterly 24 [March 1972]: 45–68). “Oh, She Has a Red Head!” precedes Clemens' interest in
the phrenological theory of temperaments by two years, but the 1855 notebook entry
makes it clear that he was consistent in favoring the sanguine temperament over the
other three.
Ⓔ “The chief among ten thousand, and altogether lovely,”] Song of Sol. 5:10, 16. The
fraudulent “Letter of Lentulus,” supposedly written in Christ's lifetime, described
his hair as “the colour of ripe chestnuts” (Charles Guignebert, Jesus, trans. S. H. Hooke [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1935], p. 166).
Ⓔ Adam's hair was red—for he was made of “red earth”] Nineteenth-century biblical glosses
and dictionaries, with which Clemens was evidently familiar, commonly derived the
name “Adam” from the ancient Hebrew root signifying redness, or red earth, from which
the first man was made.
The first printing appeared in the Hannibal Daily Journal for 13 May 1853 (p. 2). The only known copy of this printing, in MoHist, is copy-text. So far as is known, there was no second printing in the Hannibal Weekly Journal (compare nos. 10–12), but the sketch was widely reprinted by contemporary newspapers ( SCH , p. 260). Clemens may have typeset and proofread the sketch. There are no textual notes or emendations.