Well,I tried. It worked last time but not this. Sorry. Bob
 
 
In a message dated 7/6/2014 8:27:20 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

=20
For  those of us who receive HTML as Text with lots of  spurious static,=20
here is  Shelly's fine tribute in plain text  format. =20
J.  R. LeMaster is best known by Mark Twain scholars for  having co-edited=
=20
The Mark  Twain Encyclopedia with Jim Wilson.  But I think it=E2=80=99s 
impo=
rtant to=20
recall  another,  less-known contribution he made to Twain scholarship: he  
i=
s=20
responsible  for having given readers in the  English-speaking world access=
=20
to an  important commentary on  Mark Twain published in China.
LeMaster had a long  and deep  connection to China that included spending=20
two years in Beijing  and  publishing a moving bilingual book of his own  
poe=
try=20
about China (Journeys  Around China, Chinese  translations by Sui Gang and=
=20
Hua Zhi, published in  China in  2003). But I am particularly=20
indebted to him for having restored  to  us a major a speech delivered in=20
Beijing by a leading Chinese  writer in  1960 to commemorate the 50th=20
anniversary of Mark  Twain=E2=80=99s death.
For decades,  scholars had   assumed  this speech had been lost, but 
LeMaste=
r
=E2=80=99s  determined  searching over many years finally bore fruit. He 
and=
a=20
Chinese   scholar named Zhao Huazhi, managed to locate a copy. They  
arranged=
for=20
it to be  translated into English by Zhao Yuming  and Sui Gang.  Edited by=
=20
J.R.  Le Master, who worked with  them on the translation, it was published 
=
in=20
US-China  Review  in 1995. [US-China Review 19 (Summer 1995), pp. 11-15 as  
=
=E2=80=9C
Mark Twain:  Exposer of the Dollar Empire.
The  speech was particularly noteworthy not only  because Lao She was  
one=20
the leading Chinese authors of the 20th century, but  also  because the 
aspe=
cts=20
of Twain=E2=80=99s social criticism that he  highlighted were  not 
particula=
rly=20
salient at mid-century in  the US. Arguing that Twain=E2=80=99s  criticism 
o=
f the  =E2=80=98
Dollar Empire=E2=80=99  =E2=80=9Chas retained profound and  immediate  
signi=
ficance throughout=20
the past half  century,=E2=80=9D Lao She asserted that =E2=80=9CMark   
Twain=
=E2=80=99s reprimand of the=20
imperialist aggressive powers and  sympathy for the  anti-colonialist Asian=
=20
and African people  [are] especially  significant.   This is the part of  
his=
=20
literary heritage we should  value most.=E2=80=9D But  until the 
publication=
of Jim=20
Zwick=E2=80=99s book Mark  Twain=E2=80=99s Weapons  of Satire: 
Anti-Imperial=
ist=20
Writings  on the Philippine-American War in 1992,  this was probably the=20
part  of Twain=E2=80=99s literary heritage that his countrymen  valued  
least=
.  =20
(Virtually the  only American critics paying  attention to this aspect of 
Tw=
ain at=20
the time Lao  She made  these remarks were Philip Foner and Maxwell 
Geismar.=
)
Although Lao  She=E2=80=99s speech served China=E2=80=99s ruling interests 
a=
t the time  and =20
contained some of the expected Cold War jargon, it also contained  some =20
insightful readings of pieces by Twain with which American readers  were 
the=
n =20
largely unfamiliar. With a few exceptions  Twain=E2=80=99s trenchant 
critiqu=
es of the =20
country he loved tended  to be as ignored in the United States at 
midcentury=
=20
as  they  were celebrated in =3D
China. =20
Indeed, among the works Lao She   mentioned in the 1960 speech was Twain=E2=
=80=99s =E2=80=9C
Treaty with  China,=E2=80=9D a piece so obscure  that it was not reprinted 
f=
rom  its=20
original 1868 publication until Martin Zehr  brought it to  light in 2010 
in=
=20
the Journal of Transnational American   Studies=20
(http://escholarship.org/uc/item/5t02n32=20
In addition to  being the 50th anniversary of Mark Twain=E2=80=99s  death, 
1=
960  was=20
the sixtieth anniversary of the anti-imperialist,   anti-missionary Boxer=20
Uprising in China. (Lao She had written a four-act  play  about this event=
=20
titled Shen Ruan the same year that he  gave this speech. ) Most  Americans 
=
by=20
1960 had long forgotten  the sympathy that Mark Twain had shown to  the 
Boxe=
rs,=20
but Lao  She and his countrymen had not. Lao She quotes with approval   
Twain=
=E2=80=99
s comment, =E2=80=9CThe Boxer is a patriot=3D85I wish  him success. I am a 
B=
oxer =20
myself.=E2=80=9D=20

Lao She was  president  of the National Association of Writers when he  
gave=
=20
this speech. An influential  novelist and dramatist, he  was named 
=E2=80=9C=
The People
=E2=80=99s Artist=E2=80=9D and played  a  prominent role in the Chinese 
lite=
rary=20
establishment before  he was purged from  the Communist Party and became a 
v=
ictim  of=20
the Cultural Revolution (It is  undisputed that Lao She  delivered this 
spee=
ch.=20
However, as I learned in 2009  from  Gongzhao Li, the prominent Chinese 
poet=
=20
and scholar, Yuan Kejia  evidently  claimed in a Chinese journal in 1985=20
that he was paid to  write this speech for  Lao She to deliver, and that he 
=
was=20
its  actual author despite the fact that the  text continues to be  
widely=20
credited to Lao She in China, and appears in his  Collected  Works. )
I met J. R.  LeMaster in 2006 when I gave a keynote talk  at  an American=20
Studies Association of Texas  at Baylor. He  was kind enough to give me a 
co=
py=20
of the piece that he had done  so  much to recover and get translated and=20
published. He and I were  both    pleased that I was able to include the  
Lao=
=20
She/Yuan Kejia speech in  The Mark Twain Anthology: Great  Writers on His 
Li=
fe=20
and Work (Library of  America, 2010).
I  learned only last  December, through correspondence with LeMaster, of  
the=
=20
depth of his association  with Lao She=E2=80=99s family.  
LeMaster=E2=80=99s=
book of=20
poetry, Journeys Around China,   includes a photograph of LeMaster with Lao 
=
She=E2=80=99s=20
son, Xu  Yi, taken when LeMaster  visited him in his home.  Xu Yi was  
Direct=
or=20
of the Beijing Library of  Contemporary Literature  and spent most of his=20
life writing about his father.  LeMaster  wrote me that he got to know him=
=20
quite well.  LeMaster  also  directed the senior thesis of Lao  
She=E2=80=99s=
=20
granddaughter, although he notes that he  left  China before she completed 
i=
t.   During=20
his stay in  China,  LeMaster conducted interviews with half a dozen  
Chinese=
=20
writers, including =E2=80=9Ca  writer of opera who was  beaten alongside 
Lao=
She.=E2=80=9D =20
LeMaster wrote me that   =E2=80=9CLao She drowned in Lake Kunming, either 
dr=
owned=20
himself or  was murdered and  thrown there. Xu Yi says he could stand no  
mor=
e=20
humiliation and took his own  life.=E2=80=9D   LeMaster noted that the 
inter=
views he=20
conducted in China are   in the oral history archives at Baylor.
According to LeMaster, three sets  of government censors refused to let =20
three different publishing houses  publish his book of poems.  The version  
=
of=20
Journeys  around China that finally appeared in China in 2003 omits about  
ha=
lf=20
of the original manuscript, including all the poems he wrote  about the =20
Tiananmen Square Massacre. Although the more political poems  were cut by 
th=
e =20
censors, many of the poems that remain are quietly  beautiful and  
evocative=
.
I feel compelled, on the  occasion  of his passing, to express my=20
appreciation for LeMaster=E2=80=99s  determination  to share a major 
Chinese=
commentary on=20
Twain  with the English-speaking  world.  I am personally grateful to him  
fo=
r=20
having made me aware of it when  he did. For encountering  this text help 
ma=
ke=20
me realize that I had been largely   oblivious, as a scholar, to the global=
=20
body of commentaries on  Mark  Twain in languages other than English.
That realization set in  motion an odyssey that led me to seek out  writing=
=20
on Twain in  languages other than English for The Mark Twain  Anthology.   
In=
=20
addition to leading to my discovery that the first book   devoted to Mark=20
Twain published anywhere was published in French in  Paris in  1884, this=20
journey led me to uncover interesting  commentaries on   Twain  originally=
=20
published in  Chinese, Danish, French, German, Italian,  Japanese, Russian, 
 =
Spanish,=20
and Yiddish have all engaged Twain. In many cases,   they had never been=20
translated into English before. Previously  untranslated  texts  included 
es=
says=20
by Nobel Laureates  from Denmark and Japan, by two of  Cuba=E2=80=99s most  
p=
rominent=20
public intellectuals, by Argentina=E2=80=99s most  celebrated  author, by 
an=
other=20
famous Chinese writer, by a  major Russian poet, and by  respected writers 
f=
rom =20
Germany,  Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. I had  the pleasure of  
sending=
=20
a copy of the book to J. R. LeMaster not long after  it  came out.=20
[For more on this topic, see my Mark Twain Anthology,  and also my  essay, =
=E2=80=9C
American Literature in  Transnational Perspective: The Case of Mark   
Twain.=
=E2=80=9D=20
Blackwell Companion to American Literary Studies,  ed. Caroline F.  
Levander=
=20
and Robert S. Levine (2011).   Also relevant are Selina Lai=E2=80=99s  
forth=
coming=20
book, Mark  Twain in China to be published next year by Stanford   
University=
=20
Press, and a project on =E2=80=9CThe French Face of  Twain=E2=80=9D that 
Pau=
la  Harrington and=20
Ronald Jenn are  undertaking.]
The changes in my mental map  that J. R. LeMaster helped  set in motion 
have=
=20
been profound. I am grateful for  all he  taught me.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin
Joseph S. Atha Professor of   Humanities, Professor of English, and 
Director=
=20
of American Studies,  Stanford  University
Mail: Department of English, Stanford University,  Stanford, CA   94305-2087
[log in to unmask]
https://english.stanford.edu/people/shelley-fisher-fishkin

On   Jul 3, 2014, at 4:24 PM, Kevin Bochynski <[log in to unmask]>   wrote:

> The following obituary appeared today in =E2=80=9CThe  Crescent-News,=E2=
=80=9D  Defiance,=20
Ohio, and will be of  interest to members of the Mark  Twain
community. Dr. LeMaster was  co-editor with James D. Wilson of =E2=80=9CThe 
=
Mark =20
Twain  Encyclopedia=E2=80=9D published by Garland in 1993.=20

Jimmie 'J.R'  LeMaster
WACO, Texas --  Jimmie (J.R.) Ray LeMaster, Waco, died  Sunday, June 29,=20
2014, at his residence. =20
He was born in Pike  County, Ohio, to Dennis Samuel and Helen Algina 
(Smith)=
=20
LeMaster on  March 29, 1934. He attended Camp Creek Township Elementary=20
School   before moving to Washington Court House, Ohio, where he attended  
ju=
nior=20
high and  high school, moving to New Boston, Ohio, in  his final year. He=20
enlisted in the  U.S. Navy in 1951, and served  four years. Upon being=20
discharged from the Navy,  LeMaster moved to  Defiance, Ohio, where he 
worke=
d in an=20
iron foundry and   attended classes at Defiance College.

Upon graduation, he taught in  local  high schools before returning to his=
=20
alma mater to  teach in 1962, having  completed a master of arts degree  at=
=20
Bowling Green State University. While  working at Defiance  College, he 
rece=
ived=20
his PhD degree from Bowling Green in   1970. He taught at Defiance College=
=20
for 15 years before moving his  family to  Waco to teach at Baylor 
Universit=
y=20
in 1977. When he  retired from Baylor in 2006,  he had taught for 47  
years,=
=20
including two years in Beijing, People's Republic of   China.

He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Wanda; his  son,  Lon;=20
brother, Dennis and his wife, Karin; and half brother  Tom McDowell. =20
He is survived by his two daughters,  Lisa and  DeNae, as well as his=20
brother, Marvin and his wife, Shirley; half   brother, Richard McDowell and 
=
his=20
wife, Alice; sister-in-law, Patsy  McDowell;  and numerous nieces and 
nephew=
s.=20

In  lieu  of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to The Wanda May  LeMaster=
=20
Service  Award, c/o Michele Tinker, Defiance College,  701 Clinton St.,=20
Defiance, Ohio  43512; email address,  [log in to unmask]; phone,     
419-7=
83-2303.