Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the followup Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
are two of the most beloved books in American history.
Huckleberry Finn is such a big part of popular culture that even those who haven't read the
book know who he is and why he is significant. One of the main criticisms, or simply comments, I get
on my previous 'I'm your huckleberry' video about Doc Holliday and the movie and the book from 1927,
Tombstone, is that when Doc Holliday played by the legendary Val Kilmer said
"I'm your huckleberry" he is obviously making a literary reference and that he and Johnny Ringo
are both engaging in this. He means, "I'm your willing sidekick. I'm your Huckleberry Finn."
Notwithstanding the obvious question as to why Doc Holliday would tell Johnny Ringo
he was his willing sidekick, in the video, I only assert that the original idiom does not
likely come from Mark Twain. I do not deny or assert that Doc Holliday could have been
referring to Huckleberry Finn. However, I also don't dwell on the possibility.
Why? Well, the idiom "I'm your huckleberry" existed before Tom Sawyer was published.
Now, when I made the video I had good reason to believe that the idiom predated Tom Sawyer,
even though the earliest printed reference to the idiom I had found at that time was from 1883.
What were my reasons? Well, we're getting into muddy waters because we were talking
about a fictional book and film. We were not really talking about what the real Doc Holliday
may have said because we don't have any reliable evidence to tell us. So, the question is why do I
think the historical idiom itself didn't come from Mark Twain. As to the scriptwriters' motivations,
I'm not really concerned with it, but I have to address all this to make sense of these
criticisms. The video always was about the historical idiom, as it existed. The same
goes for the motivations of Walter Noble Burns when he originally used the idiom in his book.
Many commenters have confidently stated that Tom Sawyer was such a popular book;
the biggest book ever! Here is one of my primary reasons, then: Tom Sawyer was NOT as popular, in
those days, as many of you seem to think. In fact, the American version did not come out until 1877
and was a flop. Mark Twain's previous novel, The Gilded Age, had outsold it by far. Tom Sawyer was
a subscription book, meaning it was only printed when a bookseller purchased the manuscript
and printed copies of the books, themselves. There was not a bookstore around every corner with a
big stack of the latest Mark Twain books and the book itself took many years to become so famous.
The idea that everyone knew the book and it was so influential, and Tom Sawyer's best friend Huck
was so popular that it spawned an idiom that was already frequently seen in print throughout the
later 1800s is simply not likely or credible. Idioms take a long time to marinate and become
common and this will occur for many years before we ever see them used in printed publications like
stories. So, for all these reasons I thought it unlikely the idiom came from Tom Sawyer. However,
all this is now entirely moot. Since I made the video two years ago, I found the idiom "I'm
your huckleberry" used in print in 1869. Others have found earlier references; as early as 1862.
Faced with my assertion that their beloved Huck Finn didn't have a hand in Doc Holliday's line,
one commenter, to the delight of many others, apparently concocted a colorful and to his mind,
logical, theory of why, despite what I had said, it MUST STILL have been a reference to Tom Sawyer
and Huckleberry Finn. Enough people parrotted the theory that I saw fit to mention it. According to
this theory, the line 'isn't anyone willing to play for blood' and 'I'm your huckleberry'
are linked. In the scene, during a drunken confrontation with Wyatt Earp and friends,
Johnny Ringo says "don't any of you have the guts to play for blood?" "Don't any
of you have the guts to play for blood?" Doc Holliday, who had been sitting off to the side,
but had stood up, aroused by the confrontation, responded to what Johnny Ringo had said.
The reason, according to this latest theory, that this all must have been the two characters
drawing on The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn is because, at some point in the novel,
Huck said to his friends "isn't anyone willing to play for blood." So, there you go. This MUST
be a literary reference. Play for blood is yet another idiom that can be used independently. And,
the line "isn't anyone willing to play for blood" does not appear in Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn,
nor any variation of it. As I and others have stated, Mark Twain was probably purposely
drawing on the huckleberry's long association in literature with insignificance, as Huckleberry
Finn was a poor town wretch, living on the outskirts with his abusive, alcoholic father.
Even during the early 1800s the word huckleberry was used to refer to something small,
such as a small degree or small measurement. Consider this passage from the 1832 novel
from James Kirk Paulding, Westward Ho! "For my part, stranger, I can't fetch my breath anywhere
except in all outdoors, and had sooner lay down on a bed of leaves with a sky blanket,
than sleep on one of your hard feather-beds, that pretty nigh break a man's bones.
I wish I may be hoppled all my life to come, if I didn't once get within a huckleberry of being
smothered to death in one of them beds with curtains all round 'em." Many commenters also
brought up the very common 19th-century idiom 'a huckleberry over my persimmon.' When something was
a huckleberry over your persimmon, it was just a little bit more than you could handle or had the
skills to accomplish. This was also rendered 'huckleberry to a persimmon.' Both variations
simply mean one thing is a little bigger, better, more difficult, etc., than another.
This idiom, like the use of huckleberry in the passage before, is based on the small size of
the huckleberry. Some commenters, out of their love of huckleberries, were angry about the use
of huckleberry to mean insignificant. They were assuming a more figurative and abstract use. A
huckleberry is a small berry, though, depending on the variety, very tasty. The use of persimmon
is no mystery as there were many other persimmon idioms, all having to do with something being good
(as long as it was ripe!) Before I move on, remember, there are many berries called
huckleberries in the US and they grow in many different places. They are not all the same size,
same color, same taste, etc. I'm your huckleberry was certainly in regular use during Doc Holliday's
time and during the events related to the Shootout at the OK Corral. And, according to the evidence,
it was in regular use when Mark Twain named his character Huckleberry Finn.
Twain may have been referencing both the tradition of using huckleberry to mean something small
or insignificant and/or drawing on the idiom 'I'm your huckleberry's" meaning of "a willing
companion" or "a person who is up for the job or challenge" or "a person who is willing to
do something for you." This juxtaposition, to my mind, is a perfect one for Huckleberry Finn who
was seen as insignificant but was a staunch and brave friend, up for any challenge or adventure!
This does not diminish Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemons. Indeed, it shows him to be more clever.
The alternative is that he randomly named a boy Huckleberry and it happened to have those
connotations and be part of a common idiom. Back to the real Doc Holliday. As I said,
the idiom certainly was in regular use during his life including, according to Victoria Wilcox
in her book, around the environs of Galveston, Texas, where Doc lived in 1875. This is based
on a newspaper clipping from Galveston, of the time. And certainly, it was used in Georgia,
where he was from. According to many commenters, it's still used there, in some parts, today.
But, we have no contemporary evidence that he ever used this idiom. We just don't know.
Let me make it clear that the first time the idiom "I'm your huckleberry" was used
in reference to Doc Holliday was in the 1927 novel Tombstone by Walter Noble Burns. By the way, I
believe I said in the video it was from 1929. I've also said 1925 in comments. Apparently, I can't
get my dates straight. But anyway, Burn's book was a mixture of facts and lots of fiction. He
was known as a mythmaker, for good reason. How do we sum this up? 1) The idiom I'm your huckleberry
existed before Tom Sawyer was published. 2) It was common and well-known enough that Doc Holliday
could have known it. 3) More importantly, Walter Noble Burns could certainly also have known of
the idiom. As I've said on several occasions, drawing on Twain would be like saying 'once in
a blue moon' in your book while purposely drawing a literary reference to another novel. It makes
no sense. Your readers are not likely understand. They would just hear the idiom. Burns was steeped
in the lore of the old west. Certainly, he would have known of this idiom. And, as obvious as this
may seem to many of you today, now that Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are so famous,
it may not have been in those days. The audience simply may have heard or read the existing idiom.
So, were the scriptwriters of the movie both copying Burns and using a literary reference?
We simply don't know, but such a reference is not necessary for the success of the line.
The idiom alone will do and frankly, if you think the scriptwriters thought that
much about a line they lifted from a book, you're overthinking matters, to say the least. Invoking
Mark Twain to explain the use a common idiom in a book is simply making a lot of assumptions.
We know the idiom existed before Mark Twain's novel. We know it was common. Therefore,
it's most likely that Burns was not invoking Mark Twain, but was simply using the idiom.
Many of you brought up Huckleberry Hound. So many of us fondly remember the cartoon
about a blue-colored hound who took on many different jobs he wasn't really qualified for
but would somehow come through. And we remember his rendition of My Darling Clementine,
which wasn't always exactly on key. Howdy, I'm a devoted deputee; devoted to my duty, which is
whatever my hero the brave sherrif tells me to do. Yes, Huckleberry Hound DID get his name from
Huckleberry Finn, In fact, the producers, at one point wanted to name Yogi Bear Huckleberry Bear.