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.
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