Mark Twain's Book of Animals

by Twain, Mark; Fishkin, Shelley Fisher; Moser, Barry

• ISBN13: 9780520271524
• ISBN10: 0520271521
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Longtime admirers of Mark Twain are aware of how integral animals were to his work as a writer, from his first stories through his final years, including many pieces that were left unpublished at his death. This beautiful volume, illustrated with 30 new images by master engraver Barry Moser, gathers writings from the full span of Mark Twain's career and elucidates his special attachment to and regard for animals. What may surprise even longtime readers and fans is that Twain was an early and ardent animal welfare advocate, the most prominent American of his day to take up that cause. Edited and selected by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who has also supplied an introduction and afterword,Mark Twain's Book of Animalsincludes stories that are familiar along with those that are appearing in print for the first time.

Author Biography

Shelley Fisher Fishkin is Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities, Professor of English, and Director of American Studies at Stanford University. She is the author of many books, including Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture and Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African American Voices. She edited Is He Dead?, a new play by Mark Twain, and is also the editor of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain. Barry Moser is one of America's foremost wood engravers and is the proprietor of the Pennyroyal Press. Among the books he has illustrated are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Moby Dick, or The Whale, all from UC Press. The Mark Twain Project is housed within the Mark Twain Papers, the world's largest archive of primary materials by this major American writer.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Introduction	p. l
1850s and 1860s
Bugs!	p. 37
Cruelty to Animals I	p. 38
Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog	p. 38
Fitz Smythe's Horse	p. 44
Cruelty to Animals II	p. 45
The Pilgrim	p. 48
The Dogs of Constantinople	p. 48
Syrian Camels I	p. 51
The Remarkable "Jericho"	p. 53
Pilgrims on Horseback	p. 54
Arabs and Their Steeds	p. 55
1870s and 1880s
The Cayote, Allegory of Want	p. 59
With a Flash and a Whiz	p. 61
Syrian Camels II	p. 62
The Genuine Mexican Plug	p. 63
The Retired Milk Horse	p. 67
An Invention to Make Flies Curse	p. 69
Peter and the Pain-Killer	p. 70
The Pinch-bug and the Poodle	p. 73
Bugs and Birds and Tom in the Morning	p. 74
A Cat-Tale	p. 76
The Presumptuous Ravens	p. 84
Birds with a Sense of Humor	p. 86
The Idiotic Ant	p. 90
Cock-fight in New Orleans	p. 93
The Bricksville Loafers	p. 94
A Prescription for Universal Peace	p. 95
1890s-1910
Letters from a Dog to Another Dog Explaining and Accounting for Man	p. 99
The Phenomenal Flea	p. 107
Huck Kills a Bird	p. 108
The Bird with the Best Grammar	p. 109
Ants and the True Religion	p. 109
The Sailors and the St. Bernard	p. 110
Man's Place in the Animal World	p. 117
The Marvelous Moa	p. 125
The Inimitable Ornithorhynchus	p. 125
The Laughing Jackass of Adelaide	p. 129
The Phosphorescent Sea-Serpent	p. 129
The Independent-Minded Magpie	p. 130
The Bird of Birds	p. 131
The Deadliest Song Known to Ornithology	p. 133
The Pious Chameleon	p. 134
A Pocketful of Bat	p. 135
Hunting the Deceitful Turkey	p. 136
Letter to the London Anti-Vivisection Society	p. 139
The Victims	p. 141
Extracts from Adam's Diary, Translated from the Original Ms	p. 144
Autobiography of Eve	p. 149
Rosa and the Crows	p. 154
Assassin	p. 154
The Jungle Discusses Man	p. 155
The Bee	p. 158
"Was the World made for Man?"	p. 161
A Dog's Tale	p. 165
Flies and Russians	p. 174
Eve's Diary. Translated from the Original	p. 177
The Supremacy of the House Fly	p. 181
Mrs. Clemens Corners the Market in Flies	p. 186
The Edisons of the Animal World	p. 187
A Horse's Tale	p. 195
Man and the Other Animals	p. 229
The President Hunts a Cow	p. 231
The Time I Got an Elephant for Christmas	p. 235
Little Bessie Would Assist Providence	p. 238
Letters from the Earth	p. 241
Afterword	p. 257
Note on the Texts	p. 281
Notes	p. 291
Acknowledgments	p. 315
Index	p. 317
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