CFP: Mark Twain Circle at South Atlantic Modern Language Association
(5/7/05; 11/4-6/05)
Extended Deadline
I am posting this Call for Papers on behalf of Eileen Meredith,
Morehouse College, Chair of the Mark Twain Circle session for the 2005
SAMLA convention. Please send abstracts to her.
We apologize for the short deadline.
This year, SAMLA meets in Atlanta, GA., November 4-6, 2005. Presenters
must be members of SAMLA by June1, 2005. Go to the SAMLA web site for
a printable membership form (www.samla.org).
Joe Alvarez
~~~~~~~~~~~
TITLE OF SESSION: Mark Twain's Geographic Imagination
SUGGESTED TOPICS include, but are not limited to, the travel books,
place and local cultural contexts in specific fictional texts,
figurative use of geographic concepts.
Pleases send proposals by May 7, 2005, to
Eileen Meredith
Department of English
Morehouse College
Atlanta, GA 30314
[log in to unmask]: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 14:14:21 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Jerome Loving <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Mark Twain Photograph
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Can anyone give me information or sources about the photograph of
Twain without shirt and bare-chested, taken around 1883 according to
Milton Meltzer's pictorial MARK TWAIN HIMSELF, p. 182?
--
Jerome Loving
Texas A&M University
========================================================================Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2005 16:51:20 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Robert Hirst <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Barechseted Mark Twain
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See the Mark Twain Forum archives for April 10, 1997.
========================================================================Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 14:15:22 -0500
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From: Jim Zwick <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Thanksgiving Sentiment on Russia and Congo
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I found a "Thanksgiving sentiment" by Mark Twain published in the
Chicago Tribune that I wasn't aware of. It's from November 1905, when
he also wrote a brief Thanksgiving statement on the Congo that he gave
to the New York World (Nov. 26, 1905). In that, he says "We have
much to be thankful for" in the Congo. In the Chicago Tribune piece he
asks what God would be thankful for in light of Russian oppression of
Jews, political and commercial corruption in the U.S., and the atrocities
in the Congo. I have photocopies of the related manuscript drafts for the
New York World piece that are in the Mark Twain Papers. None of them
take this "Deity's side of it" approach. Has anyone seen this Chicago
Tribune piece in any other form, or published anywhere else? It's not
too long so I'll include the full text below. If anyone not familiar with
the
New York World piece wants to compare the two approaches, that
interview is online at
http://www.boondocksnet.com/congo/congo_twain051126.html
Jim Zwick
-------------------
Chicago Tribune (Nov. 28, 1905), p. 1.
THANKS? O YES! BUT: TWAIN
Some Pearls of Serious Thought by America's Great Humorist.
COULD DEITY BE GRATEFUL?
Author Not So Sure He'd Find Things to His Liking Here Below.
Washington, D.C., Nov. 27. -- [Special.] -- Mark Twain took luncheon
with President Roosevelt today. This afternoon he gave the following
Thanksgiving sentiment:
"Every year every person in America concentrates all his thoughts upon
one thing -- cataloguing his reasons for being thankful to the Deity for
the blessings conferred upon him and upon the human race during the
expiring twelve months.
"This is well and as it should be; but it is too one sided. No one ever
seems to think of the Deity's side of it; apparently no one concerns
himself to inquire how much or how little He has had to be thankful for
during the same period; apparently no one has had good feeling enough
to wish He might have a Thanksgiving day too. There is nothing right
about this.
What'll He Find in Russia?
"We may be unstintedly thankful, but can that really be the case with
Him? If He had a voice how would He regard the year's results in
Russia? What would He be thankful for there? The servants of the
government in patriotic obedience to its commands have lately killed and
wounded 50,000 Jews by unusual and unpleasant methods --
butchering men and women with knife and bayonet, flinging them out of
windows, saturating them with kerosene and setting it on fire, shutting
them up in cellars and smothering them with smoke, drenching the
children with boiling water, and tearing other children asunder by
methods of the middle ages. Doubtless the most that He can be thankful
for is that the carnage and suffering are not as bad as they might be.
"He will have noticed that life insurance in New York has gone tolerably
rotten, and the widow and orphan have had a sorrowful time of it at the
hands of their chosen protectors. Doubtless the most He is thankful for
is that the rottenness and robberies have not been absolutely complete.
Political Stench Less Strong.
"He has noticed the political smell ascending from New York,
Philadelphia, and sixty or seventy other municipalities has been modified
a little temporarily, and, doubtless, is thankful for the transient
reprieve.
"He has observed that King Leopold's destruction of innocent life on the
Congo is not as great this year as it was last by as much as 100,000
victims, because of diminishing material. He also has noticed that
America and other great powers, which, as accessories before the fact,
are responsible for these murders -- especially America -- properly are
thankful on our Thanksgiving day for nineteen previous Thanksgiving
days. Without doubt He Himself is thankful that matters in the Congo are
not as irretrievably bad as they might be, and that some natives still are
left alive."
========================================================================Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 16:20:09 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Horn Jason <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Sherburn
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Hello Folks,
I just now discovered James Leonard's fine essay on
"Lynching Colonel Sherburn" in The Mark Twain Annual, No. 1.
After comparing the published version of the Sherburn-Boggs
story, as told by Huck in chapters 21 And 22, with the version of the
story in the rediscovered manuscript, Leonard concludes that Twain both
admired and despised Sherburn's actions. As the manuscript shows, Twain
could simply have had Sherburn skedaddle away from the lynch mob but
chose to have him face down the mob, instead, ready to kill any who
stepped toward him.
Leonard's piece has stirred me to read through and around this
bothersome scene, once again. I have always emphasized Sherburn's
admirable actions in confronting a lynch mob, separating his heroism
from his cold-blooded killing of Boggs. After all, Twain leaves him
standing alone-high above the rest of humanity with other courageous
souls like Huck, Hank, and No. 44 (and Doangivadam).
Leonard, however, suggests reading beyond Twain's admiration of
courageous action and into the "context of the discomfort and confusion
Twain must have felt toward the violent solutions to social problems
that he so much deplored but apparently was drawn to." Such a
suggestion, besides deepening our understanding of Twain's views and
complicating my settled opinions, calls for us to revisit many other
such violent confrontations in Twain's work. Or am I showing my
ignorance, here? Has work been done on Twain and violence?
Jason
================================================================================================================================================Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 21:57:59 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Joe Alvarez <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: UPDATE I: Mark Twain Circle at South Atlantic Modern Language
Association, (5/7/05; 11/4-6/05)
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The update also gave the incorrect e-mail address of the session chair.
I am somewhat "leather-headed" tonight. It is now correct (I hope!).
Joe Alvarez
CFP: Mark Twain Circle at South Atlantic Modern Language Association
(5/7/05; 11/4-6/05)
Extended Deadline
I am posting this Call for Papers on behalf of Eileen Meredith,
Morehouse College, Chair of the Mark Twain Circle session for the 2005
SAMLA convention. Please send abstracts to her address at the end of
this message.
We apologize for the short deadline.
This year, SAMLA meets in Atlanta, GA., November 4-6, 2005. Presenters
must be members of SAMLA by June1, 2005. Go to the SAMLA web site for a
printable membership form (www.samla.org).
Joe Alvarez
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TITLE OF SESSION: Mark Twain's Geographic Imagination
SUGGESTED TOPICS include, but are not limited to, the travel books,
place and local cultural contexts in specific fictional texts,
figurative use of geographic concepts.
Pleases send proposals by May 7, 2005, to
Eileen Meredith
Department of English
Morehouse College
Atlanta, GA 30314
[log in to unmask]
========================================================================Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 10:41:28 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Mark Coburn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Historical novel of note
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Readable historical novels on literary themes are scarce, so I hope it's
not out of line to recommend a new one, though it is mainly set a few years
before Mark Twain's era. Although May 1 is the official publication
date,
Mr. Emerson's Wife is already on the shelves, at least in the
Northeast. And of course available through Amazon.
I should say up front that this is not a regular Mark Twain Forum review,
but an enthusiastic plug by a friend. I got to know Amy Belding Brown as a
voice of cool, good sense and endless information in the online Thoreau
discussion group. She knows the New England of Emerson and Hawthorne's
day,
and knows the past from which that world arose. As frosting on the cake,
she works at Orchard House, a home of the Alcott clan. Amy Belding Brown
has published two other novels and a variety of stories and poems.
So it was hardly a surprise to find that Mr. Emerson's Wife was
scrupulously researched; but I was delighted by how elegantly the author
brought that homework to life. I was struck repeatedly by her feeling for
time and place. For example, I had tended to view the Concord of Emerson's
day as a sophisticated little place–our own mini-Athens. But here we meet
the village through Lidian Jackson Emerson's eyes as the new bride settles
into her home, some years before Emerson's group coalesces. To Lidian,
Concord is painfully provincial–an inland, almost hick town, far less
polished than her own precious coastal Plymouth, with its bustling ocean
commerce.
I found the portrait of Lidian as woman, wife and under-appreciated thinker
deeply moving and persuasive. Because the second Mrs. Emerson tells her
own story, I was impressed with the author's skill in providing suggestive
glimpses and hints of how Lidian's often bristly personality might have
struck the people around her.
The characters are a good balance of the expected and the surprising. An
Emerson who finds it easier to lecture on friendship or love than to
express intimate feelings is no shock. Nor, all in all, does the fine
portrait of Margaret Fuller differ much from typical views of that
over-wrought soul. But the young Thoreau of Mr Emerson's Wife is another
matter. Alas, I can't be more specific without spoiling a good story. I
will say that the unexpected adds greatly to the pleasure of the book. I
found myself easily suspending disbelief and accepting things I would not
normally have swallowed.
Perhaps mercifully, Lidian glides over the time of her husband's mental
decline. So if you want the Emerson who could no longer recall Thoreau's
name, or who had no clue of what was going on when Twain spoke at the
Whittier Dinner, you must look elsewhere.
The story's closest links to Twain's era come in a fine, all too brief
sketch of Louisa Alcott and in other glimpses of young folk who would
mature after the Civil War.
Mr. Emerson's Wife offers a convincing portrait of its time and
place. It'ss provocative, and a good read.
Mark Coburn
========================================================================Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 14:33:06 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: BOOKS AND MEDIA: Briefly Noted
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BOOKS - FICTION
_Compositions for the Young and Old_. By Paul G. Tremblay. Dominion, 2004.
Softcover, 209 pages. $15.00. ISBN: 1-930977-43-4. Tremblay's book is a
collection of twenty short stories. One of the stories titled "So Many
Things Left Out" is a horror/science fiction story featuring Mark Twain who
has been resurrected by voodoo. Tremblay was inspired to write his story by
the controversy surrounding the publication of _Jap Herron_ in 1917, a book
claimed to have been dictated by Twain via the ouija board, and _Jap
Herron_ is a prominent part of the story. Another short story featuring
legendary baseball player Ty Cobb is titled "Hackin' at the Peach." This is
not a collection of stories for the squeamish. The amazon link for this
book is:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1930997434/twainwebmarktwaiA/
~~~~~
CD
_The Adventures of Mark Twain_. Musical score by Max Steiner. Performed by
Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus; conducted by William Stromberg. Liner
notes by Bill Whitaker. Naxos, 2004. 70:49. CD. $6.95. ASIN: B0002TXT5W.
This is a soundtrack CD from the 1944 movie based on Mark Twain's life
which featured Frederic March as Twain and Alexis Smith as Olivia Clemens.
The liner notes include a brief background and history of the movie and
Clara Clemens's involvement in the production. Amazon features audio clips
from the twenty-nine tracks on the CD.
Amazon link for this item:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0002TXT5W/twainwebmarktwaiA/
Barbara Schmidt
Book Review Editor
========================================================================Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 17:16:34 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: "Fascinating Duchess" - Twain in the Jardin Mabille ?
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On Feb. 28. 1878 the Atlanta _Constitution_ newspaper published without
introduction or explanation a short first person narrative titled "The
Fascinating Duchess, Mark Twain's Adventure in the Jardin Mabille." The
narrative is not included in _Innocents Abroad_ and I have not found it in
Daniel McKeithan's collection of original letters in _Traveling with the
Innocents Abroad_. It seems likely the _Constitution_ copied the piece from
another paper. Several questions about the piece:
Is it actually Twain's work? Has the piece been published elsewhere?
I have placed the article online at:
http://users.htcomp.net/bschmidt/FascinatingDuchess.html
Barb