Dear Forum Members,

The Fall 2015 issue of the MARK TWAIN JOURNAL will be mailed by the printer on September 30th. 

Its feature article by Thomas Ruys Smith, profusely illustrated, looks at descriptions of the Mississippi River in the decade just before Twain took over permanent ownership of that subject in 1875. 

An essay by Kevin Mac Donnell honors R. Kent Rasmussen as the MARK TWAIN JOURNAL's fourth Legacy Scholar.

Gretchen Sharlow pays tribute to the accomplishments of Mark Woodhouse during his decades as Archivist for the Mark Twain Archive at Elmira College. 

Five other articles take up topics ranging from Twain's Nevada years to his friendship with the politician J. R. Hawley to his racially ironic manuscript WHICH WAS IT?

In addition, the JOURNAL also briefly reviews seven recent works of Twain scholarship.

This would be a good time to print out the subscription rate form available at www.marktwainjournal.com and send it to your campus or local library. Libraries are generally receptive to personal requests for journal subscriptions, and the MARK TWAIN JOURNAL rate ($30 for libraries in 2016) compares well with other journals that publish two issues yearly. 

You can inform your library that although JSTOR is allowed to access the entire run of this journal, by agreement it does NOT offer issues published during the past two years. 

Thanks for all of your support during the period when this periodical fell behind its publication schedule owing to the illnesses of its former editor Dr. Thomas A. Tenney. 

There is still space remaining in the upcoming Spring 2016 issue. Please consider submitting well-documented biographical and historical articles as well as critical essays of general interest.  

The eclectic MARK TWAIN JOURNAL, founded in 1936, is approaching its eightieth year of publication. Now affiliated with the Mark Twain Circle of America, it is one of the oldest journals devoted to a single author. 

Sincerely,
Alan
Alan Gribben
Editor since 2012