BOOKS AND MEDIA: Briefly Noted

JOURNALS

_Nevada Historical Society Quarterly_, Summer 2008, Volume 51, No. 2.
$10.00 plus $2.50 shipping. This issue is devoted to Mark Twain in
Nevada. Articles include "Mark Twain in Nevada" by Ronald J. James who
is the Nevada State Historic Preservation Officer. James takes Ron
Powers and Ken Burns to task for presenting inaccurate views of Nevada
in their work.

Robert E. Stewart, author of _Aurora, Nevada's Ghost City of the Dawn_
has contributed two articles: "Sam Clemens and the Wildland Fire at
Lake Tahoe" and "Mark Twain's Return from Aurora." In the first of
Stewart's articles he maps out a route from Carson City, Nevada to Lake
Tahoe that he believes Clemens traveled in the fall of 1861. This trip
was the one when Clemens accidentally started a wildfire on the banks
of Lake Tahoe as described in _Roughing It_. Stewart's second article
is an argument for overturning the popular misconception, originated by
Twain's biographer Albert Bigelow Paine, that Mark Twain walked from
Aurora to Virginia City, Nevada to take his job as an _Enterprise_
reporter in the fall of 1862. Stewart presents evidence that Clemens
probably made the trip on horseback accompanied by Frank Fuller.

David C. Antonucci, author of _The Natural World of Lake and Tahoe_ and
_Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe_ has contributed "Mark Twain's Route to Lake
Tahoe."  Antonucci's proposed route to Lake Tahoe differs from the
route proposed by Stewart. It is up to the reader to decide which route
may be the correct one and both Antonucci and Stewart are commended for
their detailed research.

Cheryll Glotfelty, co-editor of _The Ecocriticism Reader_, has
contributed a noteworthy short biography of Lawrence I. Berkove who is
better known to many Mark Twain Forum subscribers as "Larry."
Glotfelty's article "The Recovery of Sagebrush School Writers"
discusses Berkove's work in "literary recovery" and his contributions
to preservation and recovery of previously lost American literature.
She presents an omnibus book review of Berkove's most recent works
including his monumental two-volume edition _Insider Stories of the
Comstock Lode and Nevada's Mining Frontier, 1859-1909_ (Edwin Mellen
Press, 2007).

The _Reno Gazette Journal_ has a story about this issue in their
Friday, October 17 edition online at:

http://news.rgj.com/article/20081017/CARSON/810170353/1003

This issue of _Nevada Historical Society Quarterly_ is available from:
Nevada Historical Society, 1650 N. Virginia St., Reno, NV, 89503 or by
telephone with credit card at 775-688-1190 (press 4 for the store.)