Dear Forum Members--
I've just learned that the University of Missouri press is
willing to send review copies of Terrell Dempsey's 2003
book, *Searching for Jim: Slavery in Sam Clemens's World,*
to professors who want to consider it for use in courses.
If you haven't already read Terrell's book, you might
remember the review of it that Shelley Fisher Fishkin wrote
for the MT Forum, in which she said, for example, that
"This remarkable book should be required reading for anyone
interested in Twain, and for anyone teaching Twain....The
reader of *Searching for Jim* gains more useful insight
into the world of Sam Clemens's childhood than the reader
of any biography of Clemens that has yet appeared. And if
the book is indispensable to Twain scholars and teachers of
Twain's work, it is also likely to be extremely useful to
scholars and teachers of American history, given the adept
way in which Dempsey interweaves so much of the broader
history with which this particular story intersects."
I whole-heartedly second her praise.  Terrell's thorough
study is a great way to build a bridge between a 21st
century classroom discussion of what the novel is saying
about slavery and race and the 19th century world in which
Sam Clemens grew up and Mark Twain wrote.
If you'd like a review copy, you can request one by writing
on your dept letterhead, and including your title and
university address, to:
Beth Chandler
University of Missouri Press
2910 LeMone Blvd.
Columbia, MO 65201
Thanks, and happy new year!  Steve Railton, University of
Virginia