Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter

by Caron, James Edward

• ISBN13: 9780826218025
• ISBN10: 0826218024
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-18
• Publisher: Univ of Missouri Pr

Summary

Tracing the arc of Clemensrs"s career from self-described "unsanctified newspaper reporter" to national author between 1862 and 1867, Caron reexamines the early and largely neglected writings-especially the travel letters from Hawaii and the letters chronicling Clemensrs"s trip from California to New York City. Caron shows how Clemens not only adjusted to but also challenged the guidelines of the newspapers and magazines for which he wrote, evolving as a comic writer who transmuted personal circumstances into literary art.

Author Biography

James E. Caron is Associate Professor of English at the University of Hawai'i.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. XI
Abbreviations	p. XIII
Prologue for a Comic Performance	p. 1
The Comic Lineage of Washoe Mark Twain
Backwoods Civility; or, How the Roarer Became a Gentleman
Washoe Mark Twain and the Old Southwest Writers: Comic Violence and Cultural Barbarism	p. 25
David Crockett Meets Nimrod Wildfire	p. 32
Charles F. M. Noland on the Devil's Fork	p. 41
William Tappan Thompson's Domestic Roarer	p. 44
The Backwoods Roarer and the "Literary Comedian"
Charles Farrar Browne's Artemus Ward: Scalawag and Spokesman	p. 50
The Communal Function of Comic Violence
Sut Lovingood "Playin' Hell"	p. 69
William Wright's Dan De Quille as Citizen Clown	p. 76
Washoe Mark Twain
Sam Clemens Clowning on the Comstock
Fighting Words	p. 85
Virginia City Carnival	p. 88
Brewing Washoe Mark Twain	p. 98
Mark Twain's Humor of Raillery	p. 116
Framing the Humor of Raillery	p. 123
Playing with Comic Dynamite
Reading a Reporter Who Mocks Journalism	p. 127
Lying to the Public for Laughs	p. 135
Punchlines That Hurt	p. 156
Mark Twain in San Francisco
"Strike Up Higher" in the Periodical World
A National Campaign	p. 163
Periodicals and the Professional Comic Writer	p. 169
Satire and the Bohemian Journalist
The Satirist Reporting for the Morning Call	p. 179
Satirist as Literary Critic: Mark Twain in the Californian	p. 186
Fitz Smythe and the Sanctified	p. 194
Readers and Aesthetics in the Marketplace of Literary Periodicals	p. 208
American "Flaneurs"
Of Flaneurs and Feuilletonistes: The Example of Bret Harte	p. 222
Comic Flaneur: Charles Webb	p. 227
"Flanerie" That Subverts the News
Mark Twain's Comic Flanerie	p. 234
The Pose of Naive Innocence	p. 242
Spinning Yarns out of Facts	p. 249
"Foremost of the Merry Gentlemen of the California Press"
That Celebrated Jumping Frog	p. 257
A Taste for Comic Material	p. 265
Correspondent on Assignment
Work and Leisure in Two Cultures
Sam Clemens in Hawai'i	p. 283
American Missionaries and Hawai'ian Culture: Industry as Salvation	p. 289
How Hula Hula turned Mark Twain into a Missionary	p. 299
Mark Twain's Comic Raid on the Kingdom of Hawai'i
Scenes in Honolulu	p. 309
Mark Twain and Mr. Brown Ransack the Islands	p. 312
Mr. Brown Defends a Centric Vision of Hawai'i	p. 323
Eccentric yet Civilized(?) Mark Twain and Mr. Brown	p. 330
Writing Travel Letters
The Out-of-Town Correspondent	p. 339
Correspondent at Large
American Travel Letters
The Ironic Return of Washoe Mark Twain	p. 353
Unsanctified Missionary	p. 360
Comic Performance
Hawai'i's Queen Emma Convinces Mark Twain to Become a Comic Lecturer	p. 373
A Fellow Savage on the Lecture Platform	p. 377
Theater and Illusion	p. 388
Afterword: The Clown and the Satirist	p. 393
Works Cited	p. 413
Index	p. 445
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