The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work

by Fishkin, Shelley Fisher

• ISBN13: 9781598530650
• ISBN10: 1598530658
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-04
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA

Summary

"Mark Twain," William Faulkner once observed, "was the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs." In this unique collection scores of these literary legatees from the U.S. and around the world take the measure of Twain and his genius, among them: José Martí, Rudyard Kipling, Theodor Herzl, George Bernard Shaw, H. L. Mencken, Helen Keller, Jorge Luis Borges, Sterling Brown, George Orwell, T. S. Eliot, Richard Wright, W. H. Auden, Ralph Ellison, Kenzaburo Oe, Robert Penn Warren, Ursula Le Guin, Norman Mailer, Erica Jong, Gore Vidal, David Bradley, Kurt Vonnegut, Toni Morrison, Min Jin Lee, Roy Blount, Jr., and many others (including actor Hal Holbrook, philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, stand-up comedians Dick Gregory and Will Rogers, and presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, and Barack Obama). Included are essays originally published in Chinese, Danish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish that have not previously been available in English, as well as the work of several visual artists, such as James Montgomery Flagg (creator of the "Uncle Sam Wants You" poster), French playwright and artist Jean Cocteau, and Chuck Jones (of Bugs Bunny fame). Published to mark the centennial of Twain's death, this collection testifies to the enduring and continuing legacy of the man William Dean Howells called "the Lincoln of our literature."

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. xv
Twain Matters: A Sampler	p. 1
From New Books (1869)	p. 13
Memoranda: An Entertaining Article (1870)	p. 18
From Les Humoristes Américains: Mark Twain (The American Humorists: Mark Twain) (1872)	p. 24
From Mark Twain: Ein Amerikanischer "Humorist" (Mark Twain: An American "Humorist") (1880)	p. 30
From Mark Twain (1897)	p. 39
Mark Twain on the Mississippi (1883)	p. 42
From Escenas Norteamericanas (North American Scenes) (1884, 1890)	p. 48
From Mark Twain (1884)	p. 48
Mark Twain's Latest (1890)	p. 61
An Interview with Mark Twain (1890)	p. 66
On the Art of Mark Twain (1891)	p. 78
From Mark Twain in Paris (1894)	p. 83
Mark Twain: An Inquiry (1901)	p. 88
From Prólogo: Mark Twain, Cuentos Escogidos (Prologue to Mark Twain: Selected Tales) (1903)	p. 105
From L'Umorismo Americano: Mark Twain American Humor: Mark Twain) (1905)	p. 108
Letter to Samuel L. Clemens (1907)	p. 113
Kh??? B ?pachom ?epe??ë?e (Books Bound in Red) (1910)	p. 115
Mark Twain (1910)	p. 117
Mark Twain as Our Emissary (1910)	p. 121
Mark Twain (1910)	p. 127
From Mark Twain (1910)	p. 133
Mark Twain Protests (1916)	p. 137
From Mark Twain (1919)	p. 142
From <$$$> (Sholem Aleichem and Mark Twain: Notes on the Eighth Anniversary of Sholem Aleichem's Death) (1924)	p. 151
Our Mark Twain (1929)	p. 159
From <$$$> (A Short Introduction to "Eve' s Diary") (1931)	p. 173
Una Vindicación de Mark Twain (A Vindication of Mark Twain) (1935)	p. 177
Mark the Double Twain (1935)	p. 182
From The Negro in American Fiction (1937)	p. 195
My Debt to Mark Twain (1937)	p. 200
Mark Twain-the Licensed Jester (1943)	p. 205
From Introduction to The Portable Mark Twain (1946)	p. 212
Come Back to the Raft Ag'in, Huck Honey! (1948)	p. 226
Introduction to Huckleberry Finn (1950)	p. 234
Huck and Oliver (1953)	p. 246
Twentieth-Century Fiction and the Black Mask of Humanity (1953)	p. 253
Yarn-Spinner in the American Vein (1957)	p. 271
Twain in the Slums (1959)	p. 275
From Mark Twain on the Bed of Procrustes (1959)	p. 278
From The Question Is Significantly More Profound: A Letter to Charles Neider (1960)	p. 280
From Mark Twain: Exposer of the "Dollar Empire" (1960)	p. 283
Mark Twain and Sholem Aleichem (1963)	p. 289
From MapK TBeh ? AMep??a (Mark Twain in America) (1963)	p. 293
From <$$$> (An American Traveler's Dreams- Huckleberry Finn Who Goes to Hell) (1966)	p. 297
From The True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1970)	p. 307
Last Laugh (1978)	p. 314
Huck Finn, Alive at 100 (1984)	p. 318
From I Been There Before (1985)	p. 325
From Chuck Amuck: The Life and Times of an Animated Cartoonist (1989)	p. 329
Introduction to How to Tell a Story mid Other Essays (1996)	p. 334
Introduction to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1996)	p. 363
Introduction to Mark Twain's Speeches (1996)	p. 374
Introduction to 1601 and Is Shakespeare Dead?: "Deliberate Lewdness" and the Lure of Immortality (1996)	p. 386
Introduction to The Diaries of Adam and Eve: Reading Young, Reading Old (1996)	p. 397
Introduction to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1996)	p. 408
Introduction to Following the Equator and Anti-Imperialist Essays (1996)	p. 420
Some Comments on Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Kurt Vonnegut at the Age of Seventy-Two (1996)	p. 431
From What's Up with Mad Mark Twain? (1996)	p. 436
From Callus on My Soul (with Shelia P. Moss) (2000)	p. 445
What Hath Happened to "The War-Prayer"? (2006)	p. 449
Is He Alive? (2008)	p. 454
Money as an American Character and the Legacy of Permission: Or How Mark Twain Taught Me That It Was Okay to Talk About Money (2009)	p. 458
America's Original Superstar (2008)	p. 467
Sources and Acknowledgments	p. 481
Index of Works	p. 490
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