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1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales

MY WATCH and MY FIRST LITERARY VENTURE by MARK TWAIN

1001 Classic Short Stories & Tales

Jon Hagadorn

Fiction, Arts

4.21.1K Ratings

🗓️ 17 August 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

MY WATCH: A humurous piece describing the narrator's futile efforts to get his watch fixed

MY FIRST LITERARY VENTURE: An autobiographical piece describing Twain as a young typesetter in Hannibal who gets a rare chance to write an article or two for the daily paper while the owner is out for a few days

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Be sure to follow 1001 Stories From The Gilded Age where Gizelle Erickson is just starting narrating the 3rd 'Anne of Green Gables' sequel titles 'Anne of the Island ' (Anne is headed for college) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/1001-stories-from-the-gilded-age/id1485751552

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome back, everyone to 1001 Classy Short Stories and Tales.

0:18.0

This is your host and storyteller, John Haggdorn.

0:22.9

We have two short stories today from Mark Twain. The first is my watch. The second story is called My First Literary Venture. Did you ever

0:29.8

have trouble with your watch? I've been really lucky in my life with my watches. I'm wearing one now.

0:35.3

It's an Invicta watch. It has never disappointed me. Always kept time.

0:39.3

One time I accidentally fell and smashed the face of my last one. I had a new one within a few days. No problem.

0:47.3

But there was at least one famous author who had quite a time with his watch. His name is Mark Twain, and he took time in his sketches,

0:56.9

new and old, to write about it. The story is called My Watch. Hope you enjoy it.

1:04.6

My beautiful new watch had run 18 months without losing or gaining, and without breaking any part

1:10.6

of its machinery or stopping.

1:12.8

I had come to believe it infallible in its judgments about the time of day, and to consider

1:17.8

its constitution and its anatomy imperishable. But at last, one night, I let it run down.

1:25.2

I grieved about it as if it were a recognized messenger and forerunner of calamity.

1:30.3

But by and by I teared up, set the watch by guests,

1:34.3

and commanded my boatings and superstitions to depart.

1:38.3

Next day I stepped into the chief jewelers to set it by the exact time,

1:42.4

and the head of the establishment took it out of my hand

1:44.7

and proceeded to set it for me. Then he said, she is four minutes slow. Regulator wants pushing up.

1:52.9

I tried to stop him, tried to make him understand that the watch kept perfect time. But no,

1:59.2

all this human cabbage could see was that the watch was four minutes

2:02.7

slow, and the regulator must be pushed up a little. And so, while I danced around him in anguish,

2:09.1

and implored him to let the watch alone, he calmly and cruelly did the shameful deed. My watch began to

...

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