The Mark Twain Forum needs a reviewer for the following book:

   Harris, Susan K.  _The Courtship of Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain_.
   (Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture.)  New York:
   Cambridge University Press, 1996.  Pp. xiii + 202.  Illustrations,
   notes, bibliography, index.  Cloth, ISBN 0-521-55384-9.  Paper, ISBN
   0-521-55650-3.

The dust jacket reads:

   Passionate readers both, Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain courted through
   books, spelling out their expectations through literary references as
   they corresponded during their frequent separations.  Their letters
   reveal Olivia Langdon not as a Victorian prude, as many
   twentieth-century critics have portrayed her, but as a thoughtful
   intellectual, widely read in literature, history, and modern science.
   Not surprisingly, the letters show Twain as a critic, a suitor who
   lampooned Langdon's interests even while he sought to win her love.

   While Langdon's letters show her carefully considering her culture's
   array of possible role models, Twain's exhibit his conservatism about
   women's nature and roles.  At the same time, they show him resisting
   many of his culture's basic assumptions.  Working with Langdon's own
   letters and diaries as well as Twain's, Harris traces the complexities
   of Langdon and Twain's courtship within their larger ccontexts,
   showing how they negotiated their relationship through the mediums of
   literature, material culture, and the dynamics of the extended family.

   Susan K. Harris is Professor of English at The Pennsylvania State
   University at University Park.

   Chapter Contents: 1. A commonplace book; 2. Philosophy and chemistry:
   science study in 1860's Elmira; 3. Negotiating difference: love
   letters and love texts; 4. Conning books: Olivia Langdon and Samuel
   Clemens's joint reading; 5. Marriage.

As usual, the review must be of publishable quality, and it would be
due within two months of your receipt of the book (i.e., due
mid-November 1997).  The deadline is particularly important, as we are
making every effort for Forum reviews to appear before print reviews,
and we are already late with this review.  If you are inclined to
procrastinate, please don't offer to review the book.

If you would like to see the general content and style of Forum book
reviews, feel free to browse the reviews that have so far appeared,
which are available under the "reviews" link at TwainWeb, at the
following URL:

     http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/forum/

If you're interested in writing this review, please send me both your
home and institutional mailing addresses and phone numbers.  If I don't
already know you, it would be helpful for you to explain in what respect
you're qualified to write this review.  (If we haven't exchanged e-mail
recently, it might be a good idea for you to remind me of this info.)

I look forward to hearing from you.

Taylor Roberts
Book review editor, Mark Twain Forum