I'd say that the contradiction you see is explained by the difference 
between a personal belief in an afterlife (1889 letter to Livy) and the 
fictional treatment of an afterlife (1909, Capt Stormfield). The latter does 
not imply the former.

Kevin
@
Mac Donnell Rare Books
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Austin TX 78730
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-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike Pearson
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2016 10:24 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: BOOK REVIEW: _Continuing Bonds with the Dead_, Harold K. Bush

My two cents from 1907: Wow. There's much good writing and profoundness in =
this book review.

The squeaky wheel:  in Twain's "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to =
Heaven=2C grief and the after-life are treated with tenderness and logic.

From the review=2C the  following passage has puzzled me:=20

>"Twain's strongest comment hinting at the possibility of an afterlife came
> in 1889=2C the year Winny died=2C when he wrote to Livy "I don't know any=
thing
> about the hereafter=2C but I am not afraid of it" (130)=2C but he steadil=
y
> moved away from any such belief thereafter."

Twain wrote his story of heaven (Stormfield) before 1889=3B  Twain allowed =
it to be published long after 1889=2C without revising it or adding cynical=
comments as far as I could detect. =20



> Date: Mon=2C 18 Jul 2016 07:11:56 -0500
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: BOOK REVIEW: _Continuing Bonds with the Dead_=2C Harold K. Bush
> To: [log in to unmask]
>=20
>  The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Kevin
> Mac Donnell.
>=20
> ~~~~~
>=20
> _Continuing Bonds with the Dead: Parental Grief and Nineteenth-Century
> American Authors_. Harold K. Bush. The University of Alabama Press=2C 201=
6.
> Pp. 237. Hardcover $49.95. Ebook $49.95. ISBN 978-0-8173-1902-1
> (hardcover). ISBN 978-0-8173-8954-3 (ebook).
>=20
>=20
> Many books reviewed on the Mark Twain Forum are available at discounted
> prices from the Twain Web Bookstore. Purchases from this site generate
> commissions that benefit the Mark Twain Project. Please visit <
> http://www.twainweb.net>
>=20
>=20
> Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by
> Kevin Mac Donnell
>=20
>=20
> Copyright (c) 2016 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
> redistributed in any medium without permission.
>=20
>=20
>=20
> Twenty-three year old Daniel Bush=2C were he to read this book=2C would n=
ot be
> able to put it down=2C and would be grateful. He'd be proud of his father=
for
> writing it. But the grim truth is that Daniel Bush will never read this
> book. There is no twenty-three year old Daniel Bush=3B he died seventeen
> years ago at the age of six. Like every other dead child he did not leave
> this life by himself: He took with him the hopes and dreams of his parent=
s=2C
> leaving the reality of their lives topsy-turvy in his wake=2C in complete
> astonishment that they did not immediately capsize and drown in the
> bottomless depths of grief. Unlike adults=2C when children step from the
> sunlight of this world=2C they cast long shadows=2C everlasting. Where is
> redemption to be found in such a shadow?
>=20
>=20
> If the reader does not believe in redemption at the beginning of this boo=
k
> he will recognize it by the time he reaches the Epilogue and reads Hal
> Bush's own summary of what he set out to do: "In this book=2C I've shown =
and
> analyzed some of the horrors a handful of our most famous writers
> experienced=2C horrors very familiar to me. But I've also documented the
> constructive ways that these deaths affected the worldviews and the
> writings of the surviving parents. I've considered how a child's death ma=
y
> have influenced the direction and content of the writer's production
> afterward=2C perhaps much more than has previously been thought" (193).
> Redemption takes many forms=2C and as Bush readily admits=2C the writing =
of
> this book was itself an act of redemption.
>=20
>=20
> This is not a speculative work of scholarship. This is a story from the
> front lines told by a combatant who has squarely faced death and survived
> to tell the tale. Somebody who has not experienced such grief firsthand
> could easily be misled by some of the myths clinical research has
> identified about the grief that follows the loss of a child. Contrary to
> the common myth=2C the wound does not scar over and completely heal. Clos=
ure
> never comes. Bizarre and terrifying irrational thoughts that would be
> considered pathological in other contexts are normal reactions to the dea=
th
> of a child. The physical manifestations of this grief are painful and rea=
l.
> All of the other elements of grief are present=2C as well as nightmares a=
nd
> magical thinking. It is not unusual for the meaning of life to be
> vanquished=2C or for the pain to increase with time instead of fading.
> Spiritual faith will be challenged=2C and faith can evaporate altogether=
=2C but
> it can also strengthen=2C as can marriages=2C contrary to conventional wi=
sdom.
> In fact=2C recent studies have shown that the number of divorces due to
> bereavement have been wildly exaggerated. Finally=2C although parents
> sometimes grieve in different ways=2C it is most common for a lost child =
to
> be held in loving memory to the end of a parent's life=2C the parental bo=
nd
> enduring unbroken=2C generating beneficial work and a positive life rich =
with
> meaning and purpose=2C as most of the examples in this book illustrate.
>=20
>=20
> Death will come to each of us sooner or later=2C but in the meantime it l=
urks
> in our literature=2C inspiring a steady stream of books on the topic for =
more
> than a century. The same year that Mark Twain died=2C his publisher issue=
d
> _In After Days_=2C a collection of fascinating essays on the afterlife (a=
nd
> faith=2C and grief) by William Dean Howells=2C Julia Ward Howe=2C Henry J=
ames=2C
> Thomas Wentworth Higginson=2C and others. Books on death in literature=2C=
or
> death and writers=2C have continued ever since. Almost simultaneous with
> Bush's book=2C Katie Riophe has published _The Violet Hour_=2C a look at =
how
> various twentieth century authors--Susan Sontag=2C John Updike=2C Maurice
> Sendak=2C Sigmund Freud=2C and Dylan Thomas among them--have faced death
> themselves. But Bush's book is clearly focused on precisely what is said =
in
> the subtitle: nineteenth century writers coping with the deaths of their
> children.
>=20
>=20
> The five authors who are the focus of this book are Harriet Beecher Stowe=
=2C
> Abraham Lincoln=2C William Dean Howells=2C Mark Twain=2C and W. E. B. Du =
Bois.
> This is a thoughtful representative cross-section of American authors who
> lost children and found varying degrees of redemption in their work and
> writings. Bush had plenty of grief-stricken nineteenth century parents to
> choose from: Twain's friend John Hay=2C who had served as Lincoln's priva=
te
> secretary=2C lost a son=3B and Twain's wealthy benefactor=2C Henry Rogers=
=2C lost a
> daughter only a few years before Twain lost Susy. Twain's brother Orion
> lost a daughter when living in Nevada. Twain didn't think James Fenimore
> Cooper could write authentically about Indians=2C but he might have given
> Cooper a pass on grief: Cooper lost his first son and one other child.
> Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lost a daughter=2C and a few years later his
> daughter's mother in a hideous accident caused by a carelessly dropped
> match by another of his daughters. James Russell Lowell lost two daughter=
s
> and a son=2C followed by their mother=2C and when the Civil War came a fe=
w
> years later=2C he lost three nephews who were like sons to him. Ralph Wal=
do
> Emerson lost a son and years later had him exhumed to view the corpse=2C
> perhaps an extreme example of trying to come to grips with the reality of
> his loss. Ambrose Bierce lost two sons=2C one a suicide and the other an
> alcoholic. Herman Melville lost his son=2C a suicide just down the hall i=
n
> the middle of the night. Fanny Fern and Bronson Alcott each lost a child=
=2C
> and the list could go on. Child mortality rates may have been high in the
> nineteenth century but that did not lessen the grief of parents. Bush
> mentions most of these other authors=2C but the five he chose to study in
> depth are well-chosen. Their lives intersect at some points=2C their
> responses to grief are interestingly similar and at times seemingly
> disparate=2C but all of them reflect the evolution of typically American
> responses to grief when facing the loss of a child.
>=20
>=20
> Bush's introduction reviews the history of grieving in America=2C changin=
g
> funeral rituals=2C evolving psychological theories on grieving=2C and exp=
lains
> what distinguishes parental grief for a lost child from other forms of
> grieving. The experience of death in the nineteenth century was raw and
> real. Children died at home instead of hospitals=2C and families performe=
d
> their own funerals as often as did undertakers. Clergy offered spiritual
> support more often than psychologists prescribed how to grieve. Nineteent=
h
> century Americans confronted death and maintained positive continuing bon=
ds
> with the dead through memorials=2C social work=2C and writing. But with t=
ime
> American responses to death became more and more clinical=2C
> professionalized=2C and domesticated=2C and the continuing bonds practice=
d in
> the nineteenth century were replaced with Freudian theory that encouraged
> severing ties and moving on. Death became something to be tamed and even =
to
> be made invisible. Bush points out that the culture of death is coming fu=
ll
> circle and the "continuing bonds" --a phrase coined by Dennis Klass in
> _Continuing Bonds: New Understandings of Grief_ (1996)--is being replaced
> by the theory of "posttraumatic growth" which recognizes the presence of
> the dead in the lives of the grieving and how that presence can yield
> constructive results out of the trauma.
>=20
>=20
> But before that can happen=2C a death must be "realized." This word crops=
up
> repeatedly in nineteenth century accounts by those grieving a death=2C an=
d
> had a particular meaning that is overlooked by the modern reader. Twain
> captured that meaning perfectly when recording his reaction to reading th=
e
> telegram that informed him of Susy's death: "It is one of the mysteries o=
f
> our nature that a man=2C all unprepared=2C can receive a thunderstroke li=
ke
> that and live. There is but one reasonable explanation of it. The intelle=
ct
> is stunned by the shock and but gropingly gathers the meaning of the word=
s.
> The power to realize their full import is mercifully wanting. The mind ha=
s
> a dumb sense of vast loss--that is all. It will take mind and memory
> months=2C and possibly years=2C to gather together the details and thus l=
earn
> and know the whole extent of the loss." In these words Bush recognizes
> Twain as a fellow member of the club nobody wants to join. Twain's words
> are as clear a description as were ever written of the initial trauma tha=
t
> must be absorbed=2C confronted=2C processed=2C and eventually accepted be=
fore the
> reality of the loss is truly comprehended. In this context=2C to _realize=
_
> something is not merely to understand it=2C but to confront something and
> move it from a state of unreality all out of time=2C and make it real in =
the
> present. The clinical term for this processing period is "latency" and th=
e
> process can take many forms and consume widely varying lengths of time=2C=
as
> demonstrated by the authors whose stories are told in this volume.
>=20
>=20
> The chapter on Howells immediately precedes the chapter on Mark Twain=2C =
and
> their experiences are superficially parallel. Howells lost his daughter
> Winny in 1889=2C seven years before Twain lost Susy. Winny=2C like Susy=
=2C was a
> moody artistic intellectual young woman with a distinct talent for writin=
g=2C
> and like Susy she died in her 20s with neither of her parents present. Bu=
t
> Howells was far more nineteenth century in his response to the loss of
> Winny. Like Mark Twain=2C he frankly recorded his grief and his lost daug=
hter
> haunts his writings=2C especially _A Hazard of New Fortunes_ (1890)=2C as=
Bush
> expertly delineates. But unlike Twain=2C Howells held out hope for a reun=
ion
> in some kind of afterlife=2C and was able to maintain a bond with his
> daughter in this way through his faith.
>=20
>=20
> Twain's strongest comment hinting at the possibility of an afterlife came
> in 1889=2C the year Winny died=2C when he wrote to Livy "I don't know any=
thing
> about the hereafter=2C but I am not afraid of it" (130)=2C but he steadil=
y
> moved away from any such belief thereafter. As Bush concludes "with the
> passing on of the baton from Howells to Mark Twain=2C do we see the radic=
al
> shift from nineteenth century sentimentalism and its vague afterglow=2C i=
nto
> a modern=2C hardened temperament for whom reunion with the dead was itsel=
f
> almost certainly a dead hypothesis" (127-128). But even if they differed =
in
> their beliefs in an afterlife=2C they shared what Bush calls an
> "anti-imperial friendship" (157) and both expressed empathy for the paren=
ts
> of children killed in war--Mark Twain in "A War Prayer=2C" and Howells in
> _Editha_. Also like Howells=2C Twain's writings=2C even more than a decad=
e
> after Susy's death=2C still reflected Twain's initial response to her dea=
th.
> Among other works=2C Susy's presence may be detected in _Christian Scienc=
e_
> (1907)=3B Twain=2C Livy=2C and even Clara had blamed Susy's "unnecessary"=
death
> on "fools" who practiced mental science and spiritualism (139). Bush also
> makes a convincing case that even Mark Twain's late work on his
> _Autobiography_ from 1906 to 1909 was prompted by a growing desire to
> immerse himself in the past using what Twain called a "systemless system"
> of autobiography that reflected his continuing struggle with a world fill=
ed
> with good and evil=2C ruled not by a just God but by an absentee landlord=
=2C
> with the result that Twain could not formulate a satisfactory theodicy=2C=
but
> instead moved toward nihilism=2C all the while continuing his bond with S=
usy
> by exercising his better angels=2C his powerful social conscience=2C whic=
h was
> Susy's legacy (162).
>=20
>=20
> Twentieth century critics have sometimes treated Twain's grief over the
> death of Susy with some impatience=2C hinting that it was excessive or
> unhealthy=2C even morbid. Although Bush does not berate these critics=2C =
this
> book certainly provides much needed perspective=2C a corrective to such
> dismissive attitudes that reflect mid-twentieth century cultural views on
> grief rather than those in Twain's lifetime. Twainians will of course be
> most interested in the chapter on Mark Twain=2C and most will convince
> themselves to read the chapter on William Dean Howells. This review has
> necessarily focused on Mark Twain=2C and the complexities of this subject
> have been briefly described (and certainly over-simplified)=2C so the rea=
der
> will do well to read this book from start to finish to gain a proper
> context and the fullest insight. Twenty-three year old Daniel Bush
> (1993-1999) would have loved this book=2C as would have fifteen year old
> Colin Thomas Waters (2001-2001)=2C the grandson of this reviewer=2C and s=
o will
> all readers.
       =