Folks;

As many of you know, I am part of a working group on American Literature
and Religion that is being funded by the Pew Charitable Trust.  Among
other things, this group is beginning a series of volumes that will
present the best previous scholarship along with newly-commissioned
essays on the religious dimensions of the works of several major
American authors.  One of the first two volumes will be on Mark Twain,
and I have been selected to spearhead organize and edit the Twain
volume.

Later I will send out a Call for Proposals for those interested and
prepared to contribute to such a volume.  Meanwhile I would like to ask
LIST-members to contact me, either over the LIST or in private, with
essays or book chapters of the recent or distant past that cover
significant aspects of Mark Twain's interests in and uses of American or
world religions.

In particular I am trying to put together a list of the 12-24 essays or
chapters that seem to be the most crucial (dare I even suggest to say
canonical) discussions of these sorts of topics.  Part of the problem is
that religion can cover so much.  There are, for example, important
brief essays on things like freemasonry or Robert Ingersoll--should
these be included?  Or science and Darwinism, a la Sherwood Cummings?
Or should we go for more broadly general discussions of Twain's
religious impulses as in works by Bernard DeVoto, Stanley Brodwin,
Allison Ensor, James Cox, Gregg Camfield, or James Wilson?

At times such an assigment fills me with despair--can such a thing even
be imagined?  Well, I guess someone has to imagine it.  I certainly know
which essays I have found to be most useful--and most truthful!

However I would VERY SINCERELY like to hear what LIST-members consider
to be the crucial writings on this rather ponderous area of
scholarship.  Obviously, the folks on this LIST are the ones who are
most potentially interested in such a project, so tell me:
    What do you think needs to be in such a collection?

Hal Bush