Having just come across the Day By Day entry for March 8, 1890 with its 
reference to Joseph Jones’ article, “Mark Twain’s Yankee and Australian 
Nationalism” (American Literature, May 1968), I began to wonder how much 
Connecticut Yankee influenced his reception in Australia in 1895. Miriam 
Shillingsburg, in the preface to her book “At Home Abroad” writes: “The 
social significance of Twain’s visit is indicated by the welcome he 
received from the highest classes of society”. Jones writes in his 
article, comparing the reception of Connecticut Yankee in England to 
that of Australia: “In Australia, contrariwise, scarcely anything that 
Mark Twain could have produced could better have suited the spirit of 
the age than did the Yankee. At the time of its publication, Australian 
sentiment was already shaping itself in the direction of independence, 
which after extensive agitation and negotiation throughout the 1890’s 
was formally promulgated in 1901.”

I had thought that “The Innocents Abroad” was his best recognized book 
in Australia. What is known of the reception of “A Connecticut Yankee”? 
My curiosity stems from an interest in the contexts of his travels.

-- 
/*Unaffiliated Geographer and Twain aficionado*/

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