I don't know how many of you will be attending my little seminar on
"Teaching THE GILDED AGE" at Elmira, but I thought I'd send out this
e-handout in case in might spark some pre-conference thoughts. I'm not
trying to spark a list-serve discussion as I'll be out of town starting
Saturday, but rather to plant seeds for discussion at the conference.

GILDED AGE Bibliography and Notes

Note: Penguin Books is scheduled to release a new edition of THE GILDED AGE
IN September, 2001. Likely, this will be the best and most inexpensive
edition for classroom use.  Lou Budd has written the "introduction" for the
text and can no doubt add insights to any questions you may have.  He's here
somewhere--maybe he's sitting next to you.

Andrews, Kenneth. Nook Farm: Mark Twain's Hartford Circle. Cambridge:
Harvard UP, 1950. Lengthy study of Hartford community and its influence on
GA.

Bassett, John E. "'The Gilded Age': Performance, Power, and Authority."
Studies in the Novel, Denton, TX (SNNTS). 1985 Winter, 17:4.

Brady, Laura A. "Collaboration as conversation: literary cases." Essays in
Literature, Fall 1992 v19 n2 p298 (14). Uses GA among other literary works
as examples of important collaborative writing. Sees intent of the authors
as excellent, but claims the final product shows need of editing and more
dialogue between the authors.

Camfield, Gregg. "Afterword. The Gilded Age. New York: Oxford UP, 1996.
Discusses book as social satire pointing to contemporary situations
reflected in GA.  Discusses influence of Hartford intellectual community.

Caramagno, Thomas C. "Bad Fictions and the Improvident Heart in 'The Gilded
Age' and 'Bleak House'". College Literature, West Chester, PA (CollL). 1987
Winter, 14:1, 62-75.

French, Bryant Morey. Mark Twain and "The Gilded Age." Dallas, Tex.:
Southern Methodist University Press, 1965. Lengthy study of The Gilded Age.
Identifies the events, persons, and practices that the novel satirizes.
Bibliography and illustrations.

Gerber, John. Mark Twain. Boston: Twayne, 1988. Offers a full account of the
background for the novel and an evaluation of its significance in the
development of Twain as a writer of fiction. Bibliography.

Goldner, Ellen J. "Tangled Web: Lies, Capitalist Expansion, and the
Dissolution of the Subject in The Gilded Age." Arizona Quarterly 49, no. 3
(Autumn, 1993): 59-92. Details the threat to American individualism from the
expanding global economy in 1873, allegorized in some of Colonel Sellers'
tall tales. Bibliography of economic studies.

Harris, Susan K. "Four Ways to Inscribe a Mackerel: Mark Twain and Laura
Hawkins." Studies in the Novel 21 (1989): 138-153. Interprets the character
of Laura as not only a parody of the sentimental heroine, but also evidence
of the authors' antifeminist attitudes.

Ketterer, David. "A Transformational Grammar: Mark Twain's 'Overture' to
'The Gilded Age'." Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor, Ottawa, ON, Canada.
1985 Fall-Winter, 8:2, 32-35

Kruse, Horst H. "A matter of style: How Olivia Langdon Clemens and Charles
Dudley Warner tried to team and to tame the genius of Mark Twain." The New
England Quarterly, June 1999 v72 i2 p232 (1)

O'Brien, Jerry. "'Everybody Chases Butterflies': The Theme of False Hope in
The Gilded Age." Journal of American Culture. 1983 Spring, 6:1, 69-75.

Rasmussen, R. Kent. Mark Twain A to Z. New York: Facts On File, 1995.
Contains a chapter-by-chapter synopsis of The Gilded Age, identifying which
author wrote each part, with cross-references to individual essays on major
characters, places, and other topics appearing in the novel.

Sax, Richard-A. "Living in the Realm of Possibility: Beriah Sellers in The
Gilded Age." Mark Twain Journal, Charleston, SC (MTJ). 1983 Fall, 21:4,
38-41. Sees Sellers as a new American literary type, a "trickster"
confidence man, emblematic of the era.

Sewall, David. "The Gilded age." Mark Twain Encyclopedia. New York: Garland
P, 1993.  General overview pointing to examples of appearance vs. reality
theme.

Steinbrink, Jeffery. Getting to be Mark Twain. Berkley: Univ. of California
P, 1991. Places novel in biographical and historical contexts.
 Thoreson, Trygve. "Mark Twain's Unsentimental Heroine." South Carolina
Review, Clemson, SC (SCR). 1982 Spring, 14:2, 22-32.

Zhegn, Da. "Twain's and Warner's 'The Gilded Age:' the economy of insanity.
(Social, epistemological and moral aspects of insanity)." CLA Journal, Sept
1995 v39 n1 p71 (23). Examines insanity
and its ethical and epistemological questions in GA, especially Laura Hawkin
's court scene.

Topics for Discussion

When, why, and how to teach GA?
Appearance vs. reality theme.
Social commentary.
Role of women.
Place in Twain's literary canon.
How GA reflects life of Sam Clemens.
The literary process (collaboration, influences)