The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Kevin Mac
Donnell.
~~~~~

_Mark Twain Under Fire: Reception and Reputation, Criticism and
Controversy, 1851-2015_. By Joe B. Fulton. Camden House, 2016. Pp. 291.
Hardcover $90.00. ISBN 978-1-57113-553-7 (hardcover).


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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Kevin Mac Donnell


Copyright (c) 2017 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.



General readers encountering the title of this extremely useful book may be
reminded of the recent controversy over Alan Gribben's edition of
_Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ that substituted three words in order to
deliver Mark Twain's masterpiece into the hands of students who might
otherwise never have been allowed to read it in the classroom and discuss
it with their peers. Twain scholars will likely have longer memories and
recall the decades of competing schools of criticism launched by Van Wyck
Brooks and Bernard De Voto. Some scholars and other Twainians will no doubt
reach back further in time and be reminded of Twain's reputation by the
time he reached the height of his fame or the censorious reaction of the
Concord Free Library toward _Huckleberry Finn_. But very few will think
back to the initial reception of Twain's earliest newspaper writings, where
this book begins. Fulton begins with those earliest writings and their
reception, and explains how Twain's reputation evolved during his lifetime,
and how his reputation continued to evolve as his writings attracted more
serious criticism. He digs deep into many of the controversies that have
followed ever since, producing a reliable and comprehensive survey of Mark
Twain criticism.


The title of the book derives from a letter Twain wrote on November 24,
1867 to Frank Fuller, who had organized Twain's first lecture engagements
in New York earlier that year. Twain swore to Fuller his intention to
establish a "reputation that shall stand fire" (11). Twain's writings had
been under fire more than once in Hannibal, Nevada, and California, and
although Fulton does not make it clear, Twain was only referring to his
reputation as a lecturer when he wrote those words to Fuller. However, it's
clear to the reader that Twain's attitude applies to his writings and that
he'd felt under attack. The cover design of the book, featuring the famous
image of Twain holding a pistol aimed at imaginary fleeing burglars in
1908, serves as a reminder that Twain could fire back at his
critics--figuratively if not literally--during his lifetime, and Fulton
quotes generously from Twain's return fire.


Twain has remained under fire ever since his death, and the critics who are
the special focus of Fulton's survey are "public intellectuals, book
critics, and scholars" during Twain's lifetime and since. Fulton says he
"draws on the techniques of the historian, biographer, bibliographer, and
literary scholar to track trends in Twain criticism and to illuminate the
forces that shaped them" (7), and he is careful to note that the "history
of Twain criticism is necessarily the history of literary tastes" and that
those tastes "change and evolve in response to contemporary culture and to
the responses of prior readers" (6-7). This observation might seem
self-evident, even banal, but the never-ending shifts in Twain criticism
provide striking reminders of that obvious truth. Fulton says he has
included some works that have been ignored "as a corrective" and admits
that when he has left out works it "is not to imply their lack of
importance" (7-8), although he never gets around to saying what their
exclusion does imply. Indeed, scholars expecting to find broad coverage of
scholarship in recent decades may question certain inclusions and omissions.


Along the way, Fulton utilizes the sources one would expect anyone
surveying Twain criticism to use: the guiding works of Thomas Tenney and
Louis J., Budd, various indexes of the MLA, ALA, and ProQuest, relevant
journals like the _Mark Twain Journal_, _American Literary Realism_, and
the _Mark Twain Circular_, and the bibliographical works by Merle Johnson,
Jacob Blanck, Robert Rodney, Jason Horn, and Roger Asselineau, as well as
all the books and studies that record international Twain criticism. Fulton
also hints at the sensational when he says he has used FBI files obtained
through the Freedom of Information Act, and unpublished letters and
journals, and has exposed a major plagiarist, outed a Nazi propagandist,
and exposed numerous conspiracies. More about this later.


During Twain's lifetime his main critics were book reviewers rather than
scholars, but Fulton's research proves that this distinction is not as
sharp as it sounds. He reveals the academic affiliations of many of those
who reviewed Twain's works, as well as their relationships and friendships
with each other as well as with Twain himself, and it becomes obvious that
book reviewers in Twain's day were representative of the scholarly
community. Besides book reviews, criticism of Twain's writings increasingly
appeared in anthologies and histories of American literature, whose editors
usually had academic backgrounds or who held university professorships.
Fulton's survey of Twain's rise in the American literary canon between 1880
and 1910 is as thorough as any, and his survey of French and British
critics is also inclusive. Fulton  notes a sudden shift in criticism of his
writings starting about 1900 when Twain's writings moved toward biting
social satire and political polemics. Toward the end of Twain's life
Archibald Henderson, a mathematics professor at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote the first serious critical study of Twain's
work, and Fulton's discussion of Henderson's approach and influence is
illuminating, although he misdates the American edition of Henderson's book
to 1912 rather than 1910 (39-40).


Twentieth-century criticism was first shaped by the opposing views of Van
Wyck Brooks and Bernard DeVoto, and Fulton's fulsome and entertaining
account of the debates that raged and personal battles that ensued reveal
his gift for story-telling. Along the way, Brooks suffers a nervous
breakdown and DeVoto openly feuds with Albert Bigelow Paine. The words
"ass" "jackass" and "little terrorists" are bandied about (72-73), and the
combative DeVoto even takes on FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and Senator Joe
McCarthy before it's all over. Fulton includes the positions of everyone
who had anything to say or write on either side in his extended account
(54-92) of the verbal sparring that often borders on hilarious hand-to-hand
combat.


Moving on to other twentieth-century criticism, a variety of works are
highlighted. The importance of Coley Taylor's 1935 study of Twain's
reading, the first of its kind, is given its due, for example, and Robert
Ramsay and Frances G. Emberson's _A Mark Twain Lexicon_ (1938) is likewise
recognized as an essential and influential source. Fulton also examines
discussions of Twain's anti-imperialist writings by Paine (who suppressed
some of Twain's anti-imperialist remarks), Edward Wagenknecht, Jim Zwick,
and others. There is a good discussion of how German criticism of Twain was
shaped in part by a Nazi propagandist--who is exposed for the first time by
Fulton--and his discussion of how Twain's writings were presented by
American and Russian critics during the Cold War includes the exposure of
Philip Foner as a plagiarist whose _Mark Twain: Social Critic_ (1958) may
rival the recent massive plagiarisms by the Library of Congress found in
Harry Katz's _Mark Twain's America_ (2014).


When Fulton turns to the criticism of "the New Criticism" school, things
don't calm down. His lively accounts of Dixon Wecter, Lionel Trilling, T.
S. Eliot, Henry Nash Smith, Leo Marx, and others include not just their
Twain criticism, but their relationships and personalities. Leslie Fiedler
stirs the pot and John S. Tuckey shocks academia with his exposure of
Paine's fraudulent text of _The Mysterious Stranger_, while James M. Cox
curiously fails to grasp the importance of his colleagues' accomplishments,
and a smug Kenneth Lynn behaves badly. Fulton quotes Henry Nash Smith's
observation on Twain's writings, in which Smith warned that they cannot be
understood outside of their "social setting." Fulton adds that the same is
true of Twain criticism, because each generation of critics tries "to
recreate the image of America" (135).


No study of Twain criticism can fail to include the work of the Mark Twain
Project, and Fulton provides a very good history of its beginnings and the
careers of the early editors of the Mark Twain Papers. He describes the
intense early debates over editorial practice, even if he overlooks the
childish homophobic pun in the title of Edmund Wilson's infamous attack on
Frederick Anderson: _The Fruits of the MLA_ (1968). However, when Fulton
discusses the more recent editing of the Mark Twain Papers he drifts off
course. Some have complained over the years about the pace of publication
of Twain's previously unpublished writings, and Fulton makes clear he
agrees with those who think the pace is too slow. Fair enough. But when he
goes a step further and suggests that a "dog in the manger" attitude may be
behind this slow pace and mentions his own experience seeking permission to
publish a previously unpublished Twain manuscript himself, the reader
cannot help but feel that his criticism may be personally motivated.


Regretfully, he does not stop there. In 1986, Robert Hirst, editor of the
Mark Twain Project, feeling it necessary to defend himself against
criticisms of the pace of publication and slow responses to enquiries,
gathered together 214 pages of correspondence on this subject, mostly
between himself and several other Twain scholars. He gave copies to four
people. A few of the letters make sharp comments or unsubstantiated
accusations against living scholars. Fulton quotes liberally from these
letters, including letters that a reasonable person could consider both
confidential and defamatory. These letters, none written for publication,
are quoted without the permission of any of the letter-writers (the
copyright holders) themselves. Fulton did not interview any of those letter
writers--and did not consult those they may have defamed. This reviewer
_has_ done so, and can say with confidence that the full story is untold
here. At this moment in his survey Fulton appears to be a clumsy journalist
rather than the careful scholar on display in the rest of his book. Some
may even view his inclusion of those letters as a kind of ad hominem attack
by proxy, regardless of his intent. This lapse in judgment mars an
otherwise excellent guide to Mark Twain criticism.


Looking at more recent criticism, Fulton gives a full accounting of
linguistic and religious studies of Twain's writings, and describes the
influence of New Historicism, New Criticism, New Scholarship, and
Transnational Criticism, which necessarily includes discussions of Louis
(Lou) J. Budd, Hershel Parker, Stanley Brodwin, Harold (Hal) K. Bush,
Kenneth Lynn, and others. He tracks late twentieth-century shifts in
criticism, represented by Jonathan Arac, Sherwood Cummings, Lawrence
Berkove, Guy Cardwell, Joseph Csicsila, James D. Wilson, Jeffrey A. Melton,
Laura Skandera-Trombley, Susan K. Harris, Gregg Camfield, and David E. E.
Sloane, among others. He delineates the scholarly disputes that have
attached to Hamlin Hill's _Mark Twain, God's Fool_ (1973) and Shelley
Fisher Fishkin's _Was Huck Black?_ (1993), and traces dissensus in other
areas of Twain criticism. He reserves high praise for the research of Alan
Gribben, and can be forgiven when he devotes three pages to his own
writings on Mark Twain. He is especially critical of "political activism
coupled with dilettantism" (196), giving as examples those critical
writings that apply Twain's anti-imperialist writings to US foreign policy
of the last fifty years.


Mark Twain himself first came under fire in 1851 while working for a
Hannibal newspaper, and he or his writings remained under attack the rest
of his life. His writings still draw fire, and those who write about Twain
draw fire as well, and, as Fulton sometimes gleefully demonstrates, even
fire at each other. On the whole, Twain studies have been friendly and
collegial, but the debates that have taken place are captured here in less
than 300 pages. Various biographies and reference works--as well as a
number of critical studies--have been neglected or overlooked, just as some
inclusions stand oddly out of place, and some living scholars may be
rightfully offended by the tone of the coverage of their work or their
exclusion altogether. But most of the major battles have been amply
documented in Fulton's study, and this reviewer hopes that the war will go
on and on, with no serious casualties, enlightening the combatants at every
rank, and encouraging frequent desertions from the opposing armies. After
all, being under fire need not require being overheated. In 1881, Mark
Twain called war a "wanton waste of projectiles" and many skirmishes in
Twain studies certainly fit that description, including the misfires in
this volume. On June 9, 1879, Twain wrote to a newspaper "My invariable
practice in war has been to bring out of every fight two-thirds more men
than when I went in." That's the model of warfare this reviewer endorses
for future Mark Twain criticism.