BRIEFLY NOTED


This "Briefly Noted" was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Kevin Mac
Donnell.

~~~~~


_Mark Twain Under Fire: Reception and Reputation, Criticism and
Controversy, 1851-2015_. By Joe B. Fulton. Camden House, 2018. Pp. 291.
Paperback $49.95. ISBN 978-1-64014-034-9.


This "Briefly Noted" is an addendum to my January 2017 review of the first
edition of this book. In that review I lavished well-deserved praise on
this reliable and nearly comprehensive survey of Mark Twain criticism and
scholarship, but also noted that some of Fulton's discussion of the Mark
Twain Papers, and his inclusion of a letter making a serious and
unsubstantiated accusation against a prominent Twain scholar were out of
place in this kind of book. Fulton responded to my review defending his
statements and concluding "In my treatment, I believe I approached the
matter legally, fairly, and responsibly." Since that time, either Fulton or
his publisher have apparently been persuaded otherwise.


The first edition abruptly vanished from amazon.com and was described at
the publisher's website as no longer available. Happily that is no longer
the case. A new paperback edition has been issued, with the defamatory
material in question removed. This revised paperback edition has a new
index and also corrects some small typos and errors--a date is corrected, a
word or two have been added or changed, some additions have been made to
the text and bibliography, and one name has been removed from the
acknowledgments. The result is a useful and entertaining volume that
belongs on every Mark Twain reference shelf, making its return to print
welcome news.

~~~~~

The link to the original review of this book is:

http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/MarkTwainUnderFire.html


The amazon link to the revised edition is:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1640140344/twainwebmarktwaiA/