Tesla on Mark Twain
``I had hardly completed my course at the Real Gymnasium when I was
prostrated with a dangerous illness or rather, a score of them, and my
condition became so desperate that I was given up by physicians.
During this period I was permitted to read constantly, obtaining books
from the Public Library which had been neglected and entrusted to me
for classification of the works and preparation of the catalogues.
One day I was handed a few volumes of new literature unlike anything
I had ever read before and so captivating as to make me utterly
forget my hopeless state. They were the earlier works of Mark Twain
and to them might have been due the miraculous recovery which followed.
Twenty-five years later, when I met Mr. Clements and we formed a friendship
between us, I told him of the experience and was amazed to see that
great man of laughter burst into tears.''
Nikola Tesla,
"My Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla", Hart Bros.,
1982. Originally appeared in the Electrical experimenter magazine in 1919.
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