Call for Papers

Mark Twain Panels at the American Literature Association Conference
May 30-June 2 in Long Beach, CA

Panel One: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Pedagogy and Critical Editions
The intention is to have a panel discussing the various editions of Adventures of Huck Finn, specifically their use in the classroom. A variety of editions would be welcome
and they could be critically reviewed.  No matter the edition chosen there are
always issues associated with that choice: whether or not to include the
raftsmen's chapter, the importance of textual illustrations, etc.

Panel Two: "Would someone please suggest a definitive biography dealing with Mr. Clemens'life history?"
Earlier this year there was a spirited discussion on [log in to unmask] about what constitutes "definitive" Mark Twain biography. Recommendations included such well-known biographers as Kaplan and Hill, as well as votes to bypass published biographies in favor of the Mark Twain Project's volumes of Mark Twain's Letters and of his Notebooks and Journals. Papers would address such topics as whether the term "definitive" biography is a myth or if biography as a genre should be considered a responsible defining of a subject's existence.

Please send paper proposals to [log in to unmask]