Author: Joe B. Fulton Publisher: Boydell & Brewer ISBN: 1640140344 Category : Criticism Languages : en Pages : 308
Book Description
Tracks the genesis and evolution of Twain's reputation as a writer, revealing how and why the writer has been under fire since the advent of his career.
Author: Mark Twain Publisher: University Press of Kentucky ISBN: 0813126711 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 228
Book Description
When the Civil War halted steamboat travel on the Mississippi River in 1861, an unemployed riverboat pilot named Samuel Clemens enlisted in the Missouri militia. After two weeks of service, Clemens abandoned his post and fled westward to begin a writing career—a turn of events that precipitated the rise to fame of the man who would become known as Mark Twain. The circumstances surrounding his departure are unclear; some view Twain as a deserter, while others call into question the nature of his commitment from the beginning. Twain defended himself in speeches and in print, offering varying accounts—with varying degrees of truth—of his confusion upon enrollment, his ignorance of the moral and political forces behind the war, and his claim to have killed a man while hiding in a corncrib. Regardless of the reason for his desertion, his personal experiences and the Civil War in general are recurring topics in Twain's speeches, fiction, and nonfiction. In addition to broaching the issue in longer works, such as Life on the Mississippi and The Gilded Age, Twain directly addresses it in shorter pieces such as "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" and "A Curious Experience." Editor David Rachels unites these selections in Mark Twain's Civil War, offering Twain fans and Civil War scholars the unprecedented opportunity to read the entire array of Twain's Civil War-influenced literature in one volume. In addition to Twain's own pieces, Rachels includes an account of Twain's war career by his official biographer as well as a story by Absalom C. Grimes, a Confederate mail runner who claims to have served with Twain early in the war. An introduction by Rachels completes the text, which analyzes Twain's military stint and assesses the war's profound influence on one of America's most celebrated authors.
Author: Forrest G. Robinson Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1139825127 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain offers new and thought provoking essays on an author of enduring pre-eminence in the American canon. The book is a collaborative project, assembled by scholars who have played crucial roles in the recent explosion of Twain criticism. Accessible enough to interest both experienced specialists and students new to Twain criticism, the essays examine Twain from a wide variety of critical perspectives, and include timely reflections by major critics on the hotly debated dynamics of race and slavery perceptible throughout his writing. The volume includes a chronology of Twain's life and a list of suggestions for further reading, to provide the students or general reader with sources for background as well as additional information.
Author: Robert Graysmith Publisher: Crown ISBN: 0307720578 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 290
Book Description
The first biography of the little-known real-life Tom Sawyer, told through a harrowing account of Sawyer's involvement in the hunt for a serial arsonist who terrorized mid-nineteenth century San Francisco. When San Francisco Daily Morning Call reporter Mark Twain met Tom Sawyer in 1863, he was seeking a subject for his first novel. He learned that Sawyer was a volunteer firefighter, local hero, and a former “Torch Boy,” racing ahead of hand-drawn fire engines at night carrying torches to light the way. When a mysterious serial arsonist known as “The Lightkeeper” was in the process of burning San Francisco to the ground, Sawyer played a key role in stopping him, helping to contain what is now considered the most disastrous and costly series of fires ever experienced by an American metropolis. By chronicling how Sawyer took it upon himself to investigate, expose, and stop the arsonist, Black Fire details Sawyer’s remarkable life and illustrates why Twain would later feel compelled to name his iconic character after him when writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. A vivid portrayal of the gritty, corrupt, and violent world of the Gold Rush-era West, Black Fire is the most vibrant and thorough account of Sawyer’s relationship with Mark Twain, and of the devastating fires that baptized San Francisco.
Author: Mark Twain Publisher: M J F Books ISBN: 9781567315318 Category : Humor Languages : en Pages : 196
Book Description
This is the first-ever compilation of Twain's wise and witty essays, sketches, and stories on the joys and rewards of misbehavior. With themes including "honesty is not always the best policy, ""the wicked are not always punished," and "virtue is often its only reward," this is a charming treasury that will warm the hearts of bad boys and girls (of any age)everywhere
Author: Shelley Fisher Fishkin Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA ISBN: 0195121228 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 273
Book Description
Fishkin "offers an intriguing look at how Mark Twain's life and work have been cherished, memorialized, exploited, and misunderstood."
Author: Nigey Lennon Publisher: SCB Distributors ISBN: 0983488428 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 200
Book Description
Most people, including literary biographers and other people who should know better, have a persistent image of Mark Twain as a dyspeptic geezer in a white suit, sourly regarding the world from a rocking chair on his New England porch. Not surprisingly, when Nigey Lennon’s groundbreaking biography, "The Sagebrush Bohemian", originally presented its startlingly irreverent revelations about Twain’s formative years, it aroused a firestorm of controversy. Previous Twain biographers had virtually ignored the pivotal period (1861-1869) during which Samuel Clemens migrated to the Western territory; learned the craft of writing in newspaper offices, saloons, and worse places; visited the Sandwich (Hawaiian) Islands; became a public speaker; adopted (or misappropriated) his famous monicker; and acquired his trademark moustache. Beneath its breezy, eminently readable surface, "The Sagebrush Bohemian" digests acres of primary sources to provide a penetrating, ribald, and hilarious look at the origins of Mark Twain, not to mention the Zeitgeist of the lusty and lawless era that produced him. “[The Sagebrush Bohemian] offers an efficient and lighthearted introduction to the years in which Sam Clemens transformed himself into the writer who made the American language and American irreverence the stuff of literature.” -- The New York Times Book Review “With great good humor, Lennon recounts Twain’s acquisition of a craft lost in his counterparts today...a different look at Samuel Clemens.” -- Booklist “A delight to read.” -- San Francisco Review of Books
Author: Mark Twain Publisher: Courier Corporation ISBN: 0486123316 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 578
Book Description
Gathered from Twain's classic novels, diary entries, newspaper articles, and correspondence, this collection of wry quips and quotes offers the great humorist and storyteller's observations on animals, critics, politics, youth, and more.
Author: Joe B. Fulton
Author: Mark Twain
Author: Mark Twain
Author: Mark Twain
Author: Forrest G. Robinson
Author: Robert Graysmith
Author: Mark Twain
Author: Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Author: Nigey Lennon
Author: Mark Twain