Jerry, there's this lovely Christmas wish:
"It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and
aspiration
that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the
despised,
the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage (every man and brother
of us all through-out the whole earth), may eventually be gathered
together
in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, except
the inventor of the telephone."
Don't know the source; Caroline Harnsberger's Everyone's Mark Twain:
says it's from a "manuscript, circa 1878)."
Someone else may know more.
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 14:32:57 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Cal Pritner <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain & Christmas
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Jerry,
MARK TWAIN AT YOUR FINGERTIPS has an entry under Santa
Claus that mentions Christmas as part of a Christmas
letter to his children.
It's signed: Your Loving Santa Claus
Whom people sometimes call The Man in the Moon
The citation at the end of the entry reads:
p. 36 -- My Father Mark Twain -- Clara Clemens
Cal Pritner
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 17:56:14 -0500
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jim Zwick <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Mark Twain Journal web site
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The Mark Twain Journal now has a web site with a brief introduction to
the journal and printable subscription forms:
Mark Twain Journal
http://www.marktwainjournal.com/
The site also includes information about the new book, The
Psychoscope: A Sensational Drama in Five Acts. The Psychoscope was
written by Mark Twain's friends, R. M. Daggett and Joseph T. Goodman,
and was staged in Virginia City in 1872. The new edition includes an
introduction and notes by Lawrence I. Berkove, and a collection of
contemporary reviews that document the controversy sparked by the
play's depiction of prostitutes in action. The complete introduction is
online in the site.
The Psychoscope
http://www.marktwainjournal.com/psychoscope.html
Jim Zwick
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 18:10:13 -0500
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jim Zwick <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain & Christmas
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From a speech before the Woman's Press Club, Carnegie Hall, October 27,
1900:
To illustrate the desirability and possibility of concentration, I must tell
you a
story of my little six-year-old daughter. The governess had been teaching
her
about the reindeer, and, as the custom was, she related it to the family.
She
reduced the history of that reindeer to two or three sentences when the
governess could not have put it into a page. She said: "The reindeer is a
very
swift animal. A reindeer once drew a sled four hundred miles in two hours."
She appended the comment: "This was regarded as extraordinary." And
concluded: "When that reindeer was done drawing that sled four hundred
miles in two hours it died."
The speech is online at:
http://www.boondocksnet.com/twaintexts/speeches/mts_womanspress.html
You might also enjoy this:
Christmas with Mark Twain
http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/essays/twain_christmas9712.html
Jim Zwick
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2006 17:45:44 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Twain & Christmas
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As to the "Christmas hope" and the inventor of the telephone, see the
letter of explanation that Clemens wrote to Alexander Graham Bell's
father-in-law Gardiner G. Hubbard, dated 27 December 1890. Scans of
the letter are online from the Library of Congress:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/bellhtml/004039.html
"A Christmas Hope" had been published a few days earlier in
the New York _World_ on 25 Dec. 1890. (See Camfield's bibliography
in the _Oxford Companion to Mark Twain_.)
Barb
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2006 09:21:36 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain & Christmas
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On 12/2/06 11:18 PM, "Jerry Vorpahl" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Christmas,
> (I suspect it wasn't one of his favorite holidays)
Hello; actually I think Christmas was probably a favorite holiday for
Twain. If not Christmas, what would it be? Independence Day?
Depending, of course, on whatever "favorite holiday" might actually mean--
for instance, I would you say that for many if not most Americans today,
Christmas is their "favorite holiday"--whether they are orthodox and
dogmatic Christians or not. This might be for a number of reasons: the joy
of the children, the hopefulness of the "spirit of Christmas," the end of
the year's festive mood, the wonderful holiday music, etc. The sense that
most people just seem friendlier, more joyful, more compassionate.
I do not have any quotes to add but I am thinking in particular to the
accounts of the many holiday season parties, esp. with earnestly Christian
families like the Twichells--events which were quite religious in tone
(sometimes Twain would sit at the piano and play hymns or carols and sing
for these gatherings.) There are a number of these accounts in Joe
Twichell's journals.
Also; check out "The Death of Jean," which is even more sentimental (I mean
that term in a good way) and powerful (and, of course, ironic too) due to
its setting during the holiday season, including on Christmas Eve. Its
poignancy is increased, I think, for these same reasons.
Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 15:46:50 -0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Messent Peter <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Recent Book
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I don't know if anyone else has mentioned this. If so, apologies. But
there's a recent book out by Suzanne Berne called The Ghost at the Table, a
novel in which Twain's life (and relationship with his family) is
intertwined with a modern family and their conflicts at Thanksgiving. Don't
know what it=
's like but it has had some decent reviews in the British press....
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 6 Dec 2006 11:52:21 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: BOOK REVIEW: Justus,
_Fetching the Old Southwest: Humorous Writing from Longstreet
to
Twain_
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The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Jeffrey
Miller.
~~~~~
BOOK REVIEW
_Fetching the Old Southwest: Humorous Writing from Longstreet to Twain_.
James H. Justus. University of Missouri Press, 2004. Pp. xiii + 591.
Hardcover. $54.95. ISBN 0-8262-1544-0.
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>
Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Jeffrey W. Miller
Gonzaga University
Copyright © 2006 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.
_Fetching the Old Southwest_, James H. Justus's ambitious and sprawling
examination of newspaper humor from the Old Southwest, provides an
excellent overview of the antebellum literary production of a region Justus
defines as Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas, Texas,
North Carolina, and Missouri. Justus conceives the book as an attempt to
provide a "comprehensive account" of the subject (2), and, checking in at
just under six hundred pages, _Fetching_ certainly offers a wealth of
information and analysis. It focuses on about twenty humorists, their
writings, and the culture which produced them. In fact, Justus claims that
the work of the humorists is a "reliable index" of that culture, and a good
deal of _Fetching the Old Southwest_ is devoted to delineating exactly how,
and to what extent, it serves as such an index.
A reader of _Fetching the Old Southwest_ will quickly come to realize that
Justus's aims do not serve to create a tightly plotted narrative. Rather,
Justus approaches his subject on a grand scale. To a certain extent, this
book is a cultural history of the antebellum South, but Justus does not
demonstrate the historian's attention to chronology. Instead, he organizes
the book around a series of thematic elements: the lost cause, the southern
aristocracy, itinerancy and migration, planting and farming, the confidence
game, race, hunting, the river, authorship, language, narration, character
types. Throughout this varied approach, however, Justus never loses sight
of his initial focus. He sees the genre of Southwestern humor as
fundamentally democratic, and he returns to this idea regularly throughout
the book.
_Fetching the Old Southwest_ offers layered complexity beneath a veneer of
simplicity. On the face of things, the book is divided into three fairly
well defined and appropriately titled sections: Mythmakers and
Revisionists, The World the Humorists Found, and The World the Humorists
Made. In practice, however, Justus's analysis tends to be recursive. The
first two chapters set up themes which are revisited throughout the text:
the mythology of the "Old South" and the commonly-held belief that the
elite humorists led lives segregated from their "common" subjects. In both
cases, Justus argues against the reality of the myth, and these ideas crop
up later in the text. His rejection of these myths serves as the opening of
his argument for the democracy of Southwestern humor, and later chapters
regularly revisit versions of that contention. For example, after laying
out the linguistic democracy inherent in the use of the vernacular in the
second chapter, Justus returns to the linguistic analysis of the narrative
frame in chapter ten, the "Languages of Southwest Humor." Where the second
chapter provides analysis of the framed narrative in broad outlines,
chapter ten pursues the linguistic shades of the humorists in greater
detail, building on the foundation of the earlier discussion.
The middle section of the book, "The World the Humorists Found," contains
six chapters that carve the "world" into six loosely organized types often
utilized in humorous writing: the itinerant, the farmer, the confidence
man, the Other, the sportsman, and the river man. His chapter on the figure
of the confidence man, "Fetching Arkansas," provides layered possibilities
for reading the title of the book: Justus asserts that "fetch" means both
"to bring around, to bring off successfully" and "to hoodwink" (148). The
third section, "The World the Humorists Made," first looks at the
profession (versus the "hobby") of authorship for humorists, then the use
of dialect and vernacular, then the notion of oral storytelling versus
written narration, then offers a study of types, before launching into a
more careful study of three texts. In the final three chapters, Justus
turns to extended analyses of William Tappan Thompson's _Major Jones's
Courtship_, Johnson Jones Hooper's _Adventures of Captain Simon Suggs_, and
George Washington Harris's _Sut Lovingood's Yarns_. These chapters offer
the only sustained analysis of individual texts in the book, and in some
ways, offer the culmination of what the rest of the book has been setting
up. They are the strongest and most focused chapters in the book and offer
a fitting end to Justus's sweeping achievement.
On the whole, _Fetching the Old Southwest_ is copiously and accurately
researched. Justus orchestrates an astounding number of primary documents
surrounding the humorous tales, including diaries, correspondence,
histories, and travelogues, in order to place the humorists within the
broader culture of the era. He also relies on a number of historians of the
era in order to frame the historical context. In addition, the book pushes
at the margins of the literary canon, making interesting connections
between the humorists and better-known authors, such as James Fenimore
Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry
David Thoreau. For example, in his discussion of river men, he weaves
together a comment Thoreau makes in his _A Week on the Concord and
Merrimack Rivers_ with Joseph Baldwin's _Keelboat Age_, an 1828 _Geography
and History of the Western States_, and the 1855 _Memoir of S. S. Prentiss_
(277-79). Justus writes in a clear, eloquent prose that shifts gears
effortlessly, combining history, literary analysis, and journalistic
reportage.
One complaint: there's not enough Twain, especially given his appearance in
the book's subtitle. Readers looking for a comprehensive guide to Twain's
use of the humorist tradition in his writings would best look elsewhere,
such as Bruce Michelson's _Mark Twain on the Loose_, James Cox's _Mark
Twain: the Fate of Humor_, and Kenneth Lynn's _Mark Twain and Southwestern
Humor_. However, this is not really a fault of the book; Justus focuses his
lens on the generation that gave birth to Twain and Artemus Ward, and they
appear only as occasional counterpoint.
Despite its comprehensive approach, _Fetching the Old Southwest_ is not
really an introduction to the Southwestern humorists. In fact, in its very
construction, it assumes a certain level of proficiency with the discourse
and its authors. Save for the final three chapters, most of the discussion
of any one author is rather fragmented; to be sure, the chapters are
thematically coherent, but Justus's frequent shorthand references to his
cast of characters might be confusing to a reader not fluent in the
discourse. The index, which is detailed and useful, might provide an
antidote for a potential reader's confusion. Ultimately, however, such
difficulties are worth enduring, as _Fetching the Old Southwest_ is a
worthy addition to the criticism of southern literature, and it is
essential reading for anyone with an interest in antebellum southern humor.
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 06:00:37 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: doug bridges <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Another Mississippi Valley Humorist
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Most of you list members are probably like me, a person who has read a bit
of Faulkner, and perhaps like me, you have not discovered the wild and
glorious humor of his The Hamlet. (I know this is only tangenital to
Twain--forgive me.)
Just recently I dived into The Hamlet for the first time and was amazed at
the homespun humor Faulkner recorded/created. Why this book is not widely
applauded mistifies me.
For those of you who grew up in the South and of a certain age, the book
will bring back memories of the old folks and their ways and dialect--I was
a kid in rural North Carolina in the fifties (19-fifties) and I remember
people who spoke and acted like many of the characters in The Hamlet.
But I offer this email to you mainly because the book is so dang funny
(although I must mention that Faulkner's characters are some of the most
skilfully depicted I have ever read) and because Faulkner surely deserves
acclaim as the second most humorous Mississippi Valley writer, second only
to our beloved Mr. Clemens.
Again, this is all tangenital to our list purpose, so forgive me and I
will sin no more--and perhaps no less. Doug Bridges
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 13:28:34 EST
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Another Mississippi Valley Humorist
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Yes, I recall laughing my way through "Absalom, Absalom" also, but it was
the sort of laughter to scare away demons. Faulkner isn't a name that
brings a
smile to most lips. Nor is Poe, but he wrote some hilarious stuff as well.
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 09:37:54 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mark Coburn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Another Mississippi Valley Humorist
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Doug--
I for one enjoyed your message and your enthusiasm.
It's always worth recalling that when Faulkner, during an interview, was
asked to name his favorite characters, his reply started something like
"Huck and Jim, of course." And THEN he went on to list characters by
Dickens and Shakespeare.
He also included Sut Lovingood in his list, and explained to the interviewer
who Sut was. Sometimes I think that's as important as Faulkner's debt to
Twain: Their common roots in the Southwest humor tradition.
I've always loved Faulkner's way of spinning the same material as tragedy
and comedy. (In that regard, I think he transcended Twain and nearly all
other American authors.)
"The Bear" is tragedy. But you might enjoy the short story "A Bear Hunt,"
which is told by a hick version of Ratliff, the great comic character in The
Hamlet.
Similarly, when told by Ratliff in The Hamlet the tale of Ab(?) Snopes
tracking manure on DeSpain's fine carpet and the events that followed is
richly comic. But when seen through the eyes of a child who desperately
wants to love his warped father, "Barn Burning" becomes a deeply moving tale
of initiation.
Do you know The Sound and the Fury? Jason Compson, it seems to me, shows
what could be done with Huck Finn's kind of voice, if the speaker were a
nasty adult rather than a loveable child. And again, there's that
incredible, Shakespeare-like jumping between the tragic and the darkly
comic: For 90 pages we live inside the sad, sad mind of Quentin Compson, on
the day that ends when he goes off to drown himself. And then we turn the
page and have Jason: "Of course I never got to go to Harvard, where they
teach you to take a swim without knowing how to swim..."
Thanks for the reminder of how great Faulkner can be.
Mark Coburn
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 7 Dec 2006 11:53:08 -0800
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Dick Ford <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Another Mississippi Valley Humorist
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More comically Twain-like is William Faulkner's brother James who wrote
'Cabin
Road' which has some of the funniest rural humor I've ever read. When the
men
folk who live at the end of the cabin road are comiserating about the local
pentecostal preacher who goes 'visiting' with their wives, one man says,
'You'd
think he'd get enough sometime.' Another responds, 'Dey, ain't dat much.'
---
Be kind. Be of good cheer.
Dick Ford
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 11:07:44 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: BOOK REVIEW: Vogel, _Mark Twain's Jews_
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BOOK REVIEW
_Mark Twain's Jews_. Dan Vogel. N.J.: KTAV Publishing House, Inc. Pp. xiv +
146. Hardcover. $22.95. ISBN 0-385-51396-8
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>
Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Barbara Schmidt
Copyright © 2006 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.
Was Mark Twain guilty of anti-Semitism? Dan Vogel offers his answers in
_Mark Twain's Jews_, which documents and analyzes references to Jews in
Twain's writings. The book consists of eleven chapters, a facsimile of
"Concerning the Jews" from September 1899 _Harper's New Monthly Magazine_,
reference notes and a bibliography.
_Mark Twain's Jews_ begins with Twain's first exposure to Jewish playmates,
the Levin brothers, in Hannibal, Missouri. Vogel describes Hannibal as a
"hotbed of bigotry" and blames the town for instilling in Twain "The
Hannibal Syndrome"--a disease "normally in remission whose symptoms would
intermittently, gratuitously, slither out of Mark Twain's subconscious to
infest his writings as brief, passing slurs about the Jews" (p. 3).
Vogel's second chapter titled "Out West with Two Jews and a Righteous
Gentile" examines Twain's relationships with Artemus Ward (a gentile), Bret
Harte and Joseph Goodman. Vogel's assertion that Goodman was a Jew may come
as a surprise to some Twain scholars and Vogel admits that few sources are
available to confirm this supposition. However, rather than proving that
Twain was aware of Goodman's Jewish heritage, Vogel simply states, "It
never occurred to Mark Twain to ever mention that his fast friend was
Jewish. It was not that that made him special" (p. 19). Vogel may have made
a stronger argument for positive Jewish influence if had he been familiar
with Shelley Fisher Fishkin's recent contribution to _Arizona Quarterly_,
(Spring 2005) titled "Mark Twain and the Jews" wherein Fishkin discusses
Adolph Sutro of San Francisco as a prominent influence in Twain's
development of positive feelings towards Jews. Fishkin's essay does not
appear in Vogel's bibliography and may not have been available to him at
the time his book went to press. However, it is one of several essays by
Twain scholars that appears to have been overlooked by Vogel.
Vogel's third and fourth chapters are examinations of Twain's 1867
contributions to the San Francisco _Alta California_ newspaper and his
best-seller _The Innocents Abroad_. Vogel asserts that much of Twain's
emphasis on Jewish noses in descriptions of the Holy Land are the careful
observations of a newspaper journalist. "However, Mark Twain's
preoccupation with the squalor, disease, and noses" (p. 35) raised
criticism from at least two scholars. Vogel refutes arguments by scholar
Sander Gilman who claimed Twain's tracing of diseases was a commentary on
the role of Jews in Western civilization. Vogel counters that Twain
described the deplorable conditions of the Jews the same as he described
all inhabitants of the Holy Land. Vogel also disputes scholar Andrea
Greenbaum who believed Twain was influenced by theories of "pseudoscience
of ethnology" that were popular at the time. Vogel argues that Greenbaum
never cited any such works in Mark Twain's personal library nor found
evidence of it elsewhere in his writing.
Vogel finds only a small number of Jewish references in Twain's writings
during his most productive years between 1867-1897. Among these are
anti-Jewish comments in a letter to Henry H. Rogers about Broadway producer
Daniel Frohman. Vogel points out that Frohman recalled in his memoirs that
he and Twain played amicable games of pool each night together while
engaged in litigation against one other. Vogel suggests that Twain could
have emulated Dickens's creation of Fagin the Jew (from _Oliver Twist_) or
followed the trend of Christian "popular scribblers" by creating greedy
Jewish characters in the form of the Duke and the Dauphin in _Huckleberry
Finn_. But he did not. Vogel states "the silence of the missed opportunity
in his creative years speaks of his basic humanity" (p. 46).
In a chapter titled "A Triad of European Jews" Vogel discusses Twain's
numerous writings on the Alfred Dreyfus affair, his friendship with
journalist Theodor Herzl, and his association with Sigmund Freud. Twain
apparently never met Dreyfus but continually condemned the French
miscarriage of justice in Dreyfus's conviction for treason. Vogel discusses
Theodor Herzl's play _The New Ghetto_ and Twain's interest in translating
the work, which featured an innocent Jew and a Christian villain who
compromises their friendship for political and personal gain. Twain's
relationship with Sigmund Freud is not well documented but Freud's
admiration of Twain is.
In a chapter titled "Shock Treatment in Vienna" Vogel examines Twain's
visit to the Austrian parliament and the resulting "Stirring Times in
Austria" essay published a few months later in March 1898 _Harper's_. Twain
reported the Jewish slurs and insults he heard hurled around the parliament
and the fights that broke out on the floor. Vogel sees "Stirring Times in
Austria" as the stimulus for Twain's major statement on the Jewish race the
following year--"Concerning the Jews."
As one might expect, the longest chapter in Vogel's book is devoted to
analyzing "Concerning the Jews." Vogel identifies the two motifs of Twain's
essay as the Jews' ability to acquire money and the envy it arouses in
those less successful and how Jews should guard themselves against this
reaction by organizing their political power. Vogel's explanation of
Twain's indictment of the Biblical Joseph as a cruel money-grabber is that
Twain's intent was to prove that prejudices that are instilled early are
never entirely erased. Vogel does not include in his bibliography the
studies of Mark Twain's writings on Joseph by Twain scholars Lawrence
Berkove and Louis J. Budd. Budd's statement that "even Twain should have
seen that it did not help his own side to describe Joseph as the greediest
stockmarket wolf in all history" was certainly worth quoting.
One passage in "Concerning the Jews" that has been controversial among
scholars is Twain's statement, ". . .if that concentration of the
cunningest brains in the world was going to be made in a free country (bar
Scotland), I think it would be politic to stop it. It will not be well to
let that race find out its strength. If the horses knew theirs, we should
not ride anymore." Vogel believes that Twain's "sense of humor went awry at
this point in his essay" (p. 79).
Vogel provides his readers with summaries of reactions to "Concerning the
Jews" from the Jewish community in America and London--"Misdirected,
misguided, narrowly educated on this subject, Mark Twain was still, after
all, a friend" (p. 84). As a result of criticism concerning Twain's
statements regarding the pacifist posture of Jews, subsequent reprintings
of "Concerning the Jews" include Twain's "Postscript--The Jew as a
Soldier." Vogel points out that "Concerning the Jews" is still
controversial because "the 'Jewish Question' has not been answered, not in
1899 nor thereafter" (p. 86). Vogel concludes that Twain's misspent humor
in "Concerning the Jews" indicated he had not yet fully recovered from the
"Hannibal syndrome."
In a chapter titled "Two Fantasies and a Twice-Told Tale" Vogel examines
the positive characteristics of Solomon Goldstein in _Captain Stormfield's
Visit to Heaven_ (contained in a passage that was not published in Twain's
lifetime) and Solomon Isaacs from _The Mysterious Stranger_ manuscripts.
"Newhouse's Jew Story" and its longer version "Randall's Jew Story," is a
story of a brave Jew defending a Negro girl and Vogel offers the theory
that Twain wrote the story in response to criticism he received from
"Concerning the Jews." Vogel laments the fact that it was too late in
Twain's creative life to build good fiction around positive Jewish
characters. However, Vogel believes these final works indicate Twain had at
last cured himself of the "Hannibal syndrome."
Vogel's book concludes with a brief account of Twain's activities in Jewish
social events during the last years of his life and the marriage of his
daughter Clara to Ossip Gabrilowitsch, a Russian Jew. In the final analysis
Vogel concludes that the worst Twain could be accused of is innocent
anti-Semitic writing in his early career.
In addition to Sander Gilman and Andrea Greenbaum, Vogel disagrees with
interpretations of Twain's work published by scholars Jude Nixon, Cynthia
Ozick, and Susan Gillman. (See their citations in the end notes below.)
Vogel provides worthy arguments to their positions.
Vogel was a professor at Yeshiva University and later head of the English
Department at Michlalah-Jerusalem College. _Mark Twain's Jews_ will be a
good companion to _Arizona Quarterly_, Spring 2005 which contains Shelley
Fisher Fishkin's "Mark Twain and the Jews." While the two works overlap,
there is much to distinguish both and help further the understanding of the
Jewish-related debates that arise in Twain studies.
_____
End Notes:
Essays that contain interpretations of Twain's work with which Vogel
disagrees include:
Susan Gillman. "Mark Twain's Travels in the Racial Occult: _Following the
Equator_ and the Dream Tales," _Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain_
(Cambridge University Press, 1995).
Sander Gilman. "Mark Twain and the Diseases of the Jews," _American
Literature_, March 1993.
Andrea Greenbaum. "'A Number-One Troublemaker': Mark Twain's Anti-Semitic
Discourse in 'Concerning the Jews'," _Studies in American-Jewish
Literature_, 1996.
Jude Nixon. "Social Philosophy," _The Mark Twain Encyclopedia_ (Garland
Publishing, 1993).
Cynthia Ozick. "Mark Twain and the Jews," _Commentary_, May 1995. Also
"Introduction," _The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and
Essays_ (Oxford University Press, 1996).
Essays by Twain scholars that are not referenced in Vogel's bibliography
include:
Lawrence Berkove. "Mark Twain's Hostility Toward Joseph," _CEA Critic_,
Summer 2000.
Louis J. Budd. "Mark Twain on Joseph the Patriarch," _American Quarterly_,
Winter 1964.
Shelley Fisher Fishkin. "Mark Twain and the Jews," _Arizona Quarterly_,
(Spring 2005).
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 8 Dec 2006 22:40:26 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Wesley Britton <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Twain and Jews
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I forwarded the book review of Mark Twain and the Jews to a friend of mine.
I thought she posed an interesting question some of you might wish to
respond to.
Wes
Thanks for the Twain article. Given the time frame and location in which he
was writing...(must admit I haven't read his work to the extent I've read
other
authors)...Twain's opinion of Jews is neither startling nor grave. There
are certainly some far more offensive images of Jews to be found in other
American
writers.
In fact, Twain's journal entries from his trip to the Middle East have
become highly prized by defenders of Israel in that they offer verification
on the
poor state of the land and the lack of native Arab population in Jewish holy
sites such as Hebron (West Bank) and the upper Galilee (Golan).
Academic literary analysis aside, I'd be more interested to know if you
think Twain was a flaming anti-semite or, more importantly, what his
writings communicate
about Jews to the non-Jews who read him.
speak to you soon. kol tuv, h.
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2006 14:30:08 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Hilton Obenzinger <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain and Jews
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Wes and Fellow Twainiacs,
Your friend's view that Twain's account is "highly prized by
defenders of Israel" raises a number of issues I've addressed in
other places, but I just want to comment briefly here. Twain
developed his views on Jews as he grew older, as he did also about
his views of colonialism, in both cases growing against bigotry and
imperial theft. In "The Innocents Abroad" there are a number of
references to Jews and to the myth of the Wandering Jew, and they are
all part of the same disdainful gaze he cast upon Arab and Turkish Muslims.
But the "verification" your friend speaks of is the abuse of Twain in
Jane Peter's book "From Time Immemorial" in which she tries to argue
that there were hardly any Arabs in Palestine, the land was desolate
and empty, Jewish colonization was justified and a positive
improvement, and when the economy improved Arabs were drawn to the
land en mass because it was economically thriving. Portions from The
Innocents Abroad -- "Palestine is sack-cloth and ashes" and other
descriptions of desolation -- are part of Peters' arsenal. She
avoids other accounts, such as Bayard Taylor's rapturous description
of lush landscape, causing him to describe California as "our Syria
of the Pacific" (the whole region was generally known as Syria). The
point of Peters' whole exercise was to assert that Palestinians have
no claim to the land, and their national movement is invalid. This
book was dismissed by Israeli scholars when it appeared in the 1980s
-- Israelis generally don't shield themselves from reality --
although it was heralded in the US. One scholar, Norman Finkelstein,
went through all the quotations in the book and showed how they were
manipulated or falsified to serve Peters' ends. Despite this, the
myth remains. The argument that the land was empty is very similar
to the ones used by the early British settlers in North America: the
native people were nomadic, did not cultivate the land, and
consequently the land was available to be seized, since the native
people did not truly "own" it. The long history of Arab Muslim,
Christian, Jewish and Druze presence in Palestine has long been
documented, and the early Jewish settlers had to admit that Palestine
was not "a land without a people for a people without a land."
Twain is regularly used for political purposes -- The War Prayer and
his writings on the invasion and occupation of the Philippines were
called upon during the Vietnam war and have been looked at through
the lens of today's adventure in Iraq. The pro-Nazi German-American
Bund in the 1930s distorted "Concerning the Jews" for anti-Semitic
purposes. We should be aware of all uses and abuses. The
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is dreadful enough. Mark Twain does not
need to be dragged in as an unwilling accomplice to continuing the horror.
Take care,
Hilton Obenzinger
Stanford University
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2006 22:44:42 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Martin D. Zehr" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain and Jews
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Another example of Mark Twain's works being conscripted and distorted for
blatant political purposes is discussed in Tsuyoshi Ishihara's book, Mark
Twain in Japan (Univ. of Mo. Press, 2005). During the 1930s, The Prince and
the Pauper was translated in a manner that bolstered the idea of a rigid,
feudalistic society resembling the Japanese society of the pre-war era.
Martin Zehr
Kansas City, Missouri
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 08:52:47 +0200
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Crawford Steve <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Twain and Jews
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I believe that some Japanese "creatively" translated western texts
primarily because of subjective cultural and not overtly political
concerns. Certain aspects of westerns texts would not have made much
sense to Japanese, in spite of the fascination with western culture
prevalent during certain periods of late Japanese history.
Translators were probably quite challenged on one hand to cater to
idealized notions, for example of the western gentleman (the British
"Dandy"), while at the same time presenting cultural aspects which
would appear to be completely upside down to the Japanese. Whether it
was right to do so may be difficult today for others to rationalize,
keeping in mind that at the time the distance in cultural terms
between Japan and west would be comparable perhaps to the distance
between the earth and Pluto. To some significant degree we pick and
choose what aspects of other cultures we incorporate into our own,
vis-a-vis the translation of texts, unless of course we are forced to
accept the other at the end of a sword. We should also keep in mind
that in terms of the receptivity of others, western critique of non-
western literature has over the years been an exercise of dominance
over the other.
Steve Crawford
Jyväskylä, Finland
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:10:37 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Twain quote
In the current Harper's no less a writer than Lewis Lapham references the
quote "usually attributed to Mark Twain that although history doesn't repeat
itself, it rhymes." At least he qualifies his use of this truism, but that
still implies that it could be authentic, and I find nothing that sources
this quote to Twain before 1995.
Has anyone sourced it to, oh... say, before April, 1910?
Befuzzled, and with fantods,
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2006 18:14:38 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "B.A. van der Wel" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Another Mississippi Valley Humorist
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Greetings Doug:
I've read a bit of Faulkner and then some. And as someone whose
matrilineal side of the family is from Mississippi, much of what
Faulkner wrote makes a kind of sense to me that is hard to explain to
anyone who is not from the South.
As Mr. Coburn pointed out:
"I've always loved Faulkner's way of spinning the same material as
tragedy
and comedy. (In that regard, I think he transcended Twain and nearly
all
other American authors.)"
This is a sentiment I'd have to agree upon in one special respect:
Faulkner didn't tightly set up his audience as much as Twain did,
leaving the reader to either laugh or even frown in uneasy wonder.
Faulkner knew that, depending on a reader's background, that the
reader might take a story as either tragedy or comedy, perhaps both,
and had to spin things in a particular, peculiar way yet one that
left room for readerly wandering. Twain, masterfully no doubt, does
not let the reader wander far at all from where he wants them to be.
He's a master of leading the reader (and in his day the listener)
from point to point, to arrive at the exact punch-line-spot he wants
them to be. Almost never fails in that respect.
But Faulkner knew that the world he wrote about so intimately was one
that did not sometimes naturally transfer well to other regions, that
Yoknapatawpha might be anything from the folks next door to a place
more "Greek" than Greece to many people. He knew that some of the
points he would like the reader to get to might be terra incognita no
matter how well they were written out.
So perhaps yes, in my experience as well, Faulkner does transcend
Twain in this one regard.
Thanks also for reminding me about Faulkner!
Best regards,
B. Adrian van der Wel
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:19:05 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: tdempsey <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: The Dangers of Reading Tom 'n Huck
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Dear Friends, I don't know if this made the national news or not, but
two 12-year-old Pike County, Missouri boys lit out for the woods this
week one day after school. They were Amish lads who live in the country
near Curryville and Bowling Green. They never came home from their
little country school house Tuesday. It was big news -- amber alert
material and everyone was scared to death. Of course a giant search was
organized, including a helicopter. Which is a pretty big deal in these
parts.
The boys were found late Wednesday afternoon. They were in a copse
of woods -- cold, wet, and happy as a pointer in a covey of quail. The
reason they had lit out? They had been reading Tom Sawyer and
Huckleberry Finn and decided they wanted some adventure of their own!
True story.
Hope everyone is with someone they love this week.
Terrell Dempsey in Hannibal
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 18:47:08 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Charlie Cogar <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Its a Wonderful Life
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Hello,
I just saw the film IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, and wonder if there is
significance that Twain's Tom Sawyer appears in the movie. In the event
you haven't seen the movie, the angel Clarence is sent to earth with the
text, he refers to it a few times, and George Bailey receives the book
from Clarence at the end of the film.
Thank you.
SEASON'S GREETINGS
Charlie Cogar
Omaha, Nebraska
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2006 21:03:50 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: The Dangers of Reading Tom 'n Huck
That's a great story. How about another story of the supposed influence of
Tom Sawyer, this one from 1893, one that I think I've mentioned in passing
once before?
A fellow named Charles Calvin Zeigler sent Twain a newspaper clipping from
`The Republic' out of St Jo, MO, about a 16 year old kid shot during a
burglary. His deathbed confession was that he was part of a gang inspired by
TS's gang, involving eleven teenagers, who all took a "hideous oath" and
were sworn not to reveal each other's names or deeds. This being a deathbed
confession, he could not confess and then live, or maybe linger a little for
dramatic effect. He just died, right on cue.
Twain's reply was: "Dear Sir: Thank you for the sermon from The Republic. I
shall reform, now, & write no more books like that one. Truly Yours, Mark
Twain." Twain underlined "that" for emphasis. It would have been lovely to
have been a witness to Twain reading and responding to that nonsense.
That's two stories with happy endings. Think of the "two" as underlined for
emphasis.
Happy Holidays to all!
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 01:51:27 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Carmela Valente <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: What a fascinating observation!Re: Its a Wonderful Life
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Dear Charlie:
That is fascinating. I never thought of it. That movie is excellent and
Jimmie Stewart is unsurpassed.
Merry Christmas.
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 02:45:28 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Duane McCollum <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Its a Wonderful Life
Comments: cc: Charlie Cogar <[log in to unmask]>
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I was wondering that myself. I thought it had something to do with how Tom
often had fantasies about dying or leaving town, and how everyone would miss
him and regret having had treated him badly.
I'd love to hear what the real significance was.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 07:39:57 -0800
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Michael Patrick Hearn <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Can reading Twain be hazardous to your child's health?
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Late nineteenth century newspapers were full of comparisons between Tom and
Huck and kids who ran way from home. They blamed the phenomenon on reading
Twain's books. Before that they blamed it on dime novels.
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 14:46:47 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mark Dawidziak <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Tom Sawyer and George Bailey
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Greetings of the Season, Twanians, Twainiacs and Assorted Twain Friends
(we can get the assortment box, with nuts, can't we?),
The selection of "Tom Sawyer" for "It's a Wonderful Life" remains
something of a mystery. Counting Philip Van Doren Stern, who wrote the
1938 short story that was the source of the film ("The Greatest Gift"),
at least ten writers contributed to various versions of the scripts for
"It's a Wonderful Life." The earliest version, pre-dating director Frank
Capra's September 1945 purchase of the story, was by playwright and
Algonquin Round Table wit Marc Connelly. Another early version, by
playwright Clifford Odets, also was completed before Capra's purchase of
the material. Dalton Trumbo, later blacklisted during the Red Scare,
also took a swing at it.
Capra purchased the story after being told of it by RKO boss
Charles Koerner. Capra assigned the script to prolific husband-and-wife
team Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich ("The Thin Man," "The Diary of
Anne Frank"), and the director apparently wasn't boasting when he
claimed to have contributed some scenes and dialogue, as well. Capra
then brought in several writers to polish the script, including his
buddy Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson (also blacklisted) and Dorothy Parker
(Connelly's Round Table pal).
The Writers Guild rules of the time were considerably less strict
than today, but, even so, credit for "It's A Wonderful Life" was so
complicated, the script was submitted to the Guild for arbitration. The
final screen credit reads thus:
"Screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra.
Additional scenes by Joe Swerling. Based on a story by Philip Van Doren
Stern. So five of the ten known writers received some credit.
The references to Twain and "Tom Sawyer" are not in Van Doren
Stern's story, nor do they seem to have been in the early scripts
written by Connelly and Odets. They are in the final script (dated March
4, 1947) on file in the Frank Carpa Archives at Wesleyan University.
Clarence is carrying "Tom Sawyer" in that script's opening scene in
heaven (a scene cut in half by Capra, but "Tom Sawyer" survived the cut,
reemerging with Clarence when he jumps into the river to save George).
And in this shooting script used by Capra, the closing-scene inscription
written in "Tom Sawyer" by Clarence was slightly longer than the one we
now know: "Dear George -- This is to remember me by, and to remember
this: no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings. Love,
Clarence."
So the likely suspects for including Twain and Tom are Carpa,
Goodrich and Hackett, Swerling, Parker or Wilson. Even if the writer
could be identified, though, the idea could have come from Capra, Jimmy
Stewart or the cameraman.
It has been the source of much speculation. In the '60s and '70s,
for instance, there was the theory that Capra used the "Tom Sawyer"
reference because Clarence the angel was a benign version of Twain's
angel in the hacked-together, widely read "The Mysterious Stranger" then
believed to represent the author's vision of the story.
During a 1968 appearance at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and
Sciences, Capra was asked about the Twain reference by a student. This
exchange is from that transcript:
Student: I'm curious about one detail about the angel carrying the Mark
Twain book because this story is, so to speak, the reverse of Mark
Twain's 'Mysterious Stranger," where the boy dies, and in the story you
discover that if he had lived he would have created all kinds of
mischief so it was better that he died. He died also by falling through
and drowning. And I wondered whether this was in Van Doren Stern's story
or how it came to be that he carried a Mark Twain book.
Capra: No, it wasn't in Van Doren Stern's original. It's a detail we
thought of. I've always liked Mark Twain and I thought I'd give him a
plug. (Laughter) It wasn't in connection with a Mark Twain story. It was
not in answer or in any way connected with his.
The more popular theory is that Capra or one of the writers chose
Twain because, in 1946 (and today), no author better represented
Americana and Americans. And they most likely chose "Tom Sawyer" because
he was, by far and away, Twain's best-known character. It's a double
touchstone, grounding the film in something of the past and something
eternal. Remember that Capra and Stewart wanted to make this story after
witnessing the horrors of battle during World War II. They wanted to
make a story that honored the notion that every life has significance.
It's most likely that Twain was the all-American choice for this
small-town tale, although it certainly doesn't hurt that "It's a
Wonderful Life" (like Twain's writing) has some terribly dark, even
cynical corners (think of what becomes to the "good" people of Bedford
Falls when George gets to see life without his influence).
Did Trumbo, Swerling or Parker pick up on the darker aspects of
Twain's writing while still cherishing Twain as the most "human" of
writers? It's possible, but, again, nothing is conclusive.
The influence of Dickens also is profound, after all, from the
Scrooge-like Potter to the framing of a supernatural Christmas story.
Uncle Billy's pet raven is a very Dickensian touch (you were thinking
Poe?). The foolish title character in "Barnaby Rudge" has a pet raven.
Given Twain's influence on American literature, though, it would be
remarkable to think he didn't have some influence on the writers and the
writing of "It's a Wonderful Life." And the inclusion of "Tom Sawyer". .
. well, it's a wonderful choice.
With all best wishes for Christmas, the new year and beyond,
Mark Dawidziak
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 22:18:50 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Carmela Valente <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: In this season of giving
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Dear Twain lovers:
At this time of year which is notorious for giving among other things, I
wish to drop in here and enthusiastically thank all you you who have given
me so very much. You are wonderful, and maybe now that I have a new
computer, I won't annoy that gentleman who found "equals signs" in my
messages. Seriously, you are a generous group, and during the next year, I
look forward to speaking personally with Andrew Hoffman and Mr. Tempsy.
Bless you for being so generous.
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 14:52:38 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Charlie Cogar <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: George and Tom: It's a Wonderful Life
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Thank you Mark Dawidziak for the incredible back story to my question.
I just got a book that may shed further insight to the Tom Sawyer aspect
as well as other interesting insights about the film. The book is "The
Essential 'It's a Wonderful Life,' a Scene by Guide to the Classic
Film." For those interested it's ISBN-13: 978-1-55652-636-7; author is
Michael Willian.
I haven't gotten far at all as I just got the book, and am anxious to
learn more about this timeless classic film. I have the 169 page script
for the film, and curiously the pet raven is not mentioned. And its
presence is not acknowledged by the characters in the film.
Again "Thanks, Mark," and Merry Christmas to all, with Peace in the New
Year.
Charlie Cogar
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2006 06:49:14 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Carmela Valente <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Twain's "dark periods"
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Dear Group:
This occurred to me on my walk with Odin, my guide dog. I personally look
at Twain's life after Olivia's death as being a rather dark period with no
one to really direct him. In retrospect however, could it not also be
argued that the fiasco with the type setting machine which plunged the
"good gentleman" into bankruptcy might also have constituted a "dark
period". Did Twain not suffer from.
Thank you, all of you.
Camy
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 26 Dec 2006 12:24:29 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: BOOK REVIEW: Michelson, _Printer's Devil_
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The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Michael
J. Kiskis.
~~~~~
BOOK REVIEW
_Printer's Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution_.
Bruce Michelson. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006. Pp. XIII,
299. Hardcover. $34.95. ISBN 0-520-2759-0.
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>
Reviewed by Michael J. Kiskis, Elmira College.
Copyright © 2006 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.
In _Printer's Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution_
Bruce Michelson moves beyond an examination of Samuel Clemens as a primal
force in humor as well as beyond the work of humor more generally.
Michelson's earlier works were _Mark Twain on the Loose: A Comic Writer and
the American Self_ (1995) and _Literary Wit_ (2000). In _Printer's Devil_
he focuses on Clemens's experience within the maelstrom of nineteenth
century publishing, and especially the impact of technological innovation
on both the process and product of book production. Early in his
consideration of Clemens's immersion in nineteenth century print culture,
Michelson offers a broad summary statement:
The innovations that reconstructed American publishing after 1840, changes
that only increased in scope and fury during the end of the nineteenth
century, altered nearly everything that a "book" was and could be--not only
its physical construction, demographic reach, and economic value but also
its potential as a cultural artifact and even its epistemology. Every
decade of Clemens's life from 1850 through 1900 brought radical disruptions
in that reality, and in every one of those decades he re-created himself as
an author to respond to that new world (19).
For too long we have looked at Clemens's alter ego Mark Twain almost
exclusively as a construction of and reaction to literary stresses,
personal bouts of creativity, and professional anxiety. We have focused on
the individual traits of the writer and the persona and presented and
analyzed those traits tied to the printed word or (in some cases) the
broader cultural and historical moment. Clemens's position in and reaction
to print history and specifically print technologies, however, are more
complex than we have so far understood (or even thought to admit).
Michelson's bracing look at Clemens and Mark Twain and the way each was
shaped by vertiginous changes in the publishing industry offers new insight
into Samuel Clemens and the symbiotic relationship between the printer's
devil who became one of America's more influential authors and the
technology that entranced, bewitched, and ultimately ruined and then
resurrected him.
Technological innovation radically transformed the publishing industry
through the nineteenth century. Michelson focuses on five major innovations
that appeared between 1840 and the Civil War. The first of these is the
development of stereotype and electrotype. Electrotype was important
because it allowed safe shipping of plates to distant presses. Book
publishing became more dispersed and books were more readily available
nationally. The technology also had genuine implications for the wide
circulation of copies of art works. Michelson states, "Beyond the
production of high-quality relics of set type and engravings,
electroplating processes played havoc with the Western decorative arts and
rituals of status display by multiplying and deepening the confusion on the
streets about authenticity and intrinsic value" (38). Michelson also
discusses the illustrations in several of Clemens's books and explains how
readily available illustrations and art reproduction jumbled distinctions
of social class and the concomitant evolution of taste for the authentic.
For example, consider the art on display in Clemens's travel books or the
various samples of art work on display in the Grangerford home in
_Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_.
Several innovations affected the speed of production and the cost of
materials. Powered type-revolving and automated bed-and-platen presses
allowed for exponential increases in the speed and, therefore, the quantity
of books printed. Mechanized manufacturing lowered paper costs. Added to
the increase in efficiency was a marked improvement in distribution with
the expansion of the railroad and telegraph networks. This extension of the
distribution network for literary products and basic kinds of social and
cultural information made it possible for larger publishing companies to
extend their reach into the west. Instantaneous communication of
information often made small town newspapers obsolete. Many, like Orion
Clemens's various newspapers, were driven out of business because of the
ready availability of regional and national publications.
Technical advances in electroplating and cost-reductions in printing
illustrations led to a surge in multi-media production. Books offered
readers both textual and visual representations. This innovation held
special importance for Clemens because it affected his definition of
himself as a literary worker and made the work of book creation much more
complex and compelling as a creative act. In Michelson's words:
As a massive dissemination of printed images in periodicals and books
transformed the American experience of reading, the new imperative for
visual experience transformed Mark Twain's thinking about the books that he
intended to write, the subjects he wrote _about_, his rhetorical style, and
the tastes and values of the audience he was writing to. . . When _The
Innocents Abroad_ established Mark Twain as an author of picture-laden
books, he began to play a central role in designing books that followed,
hiring his illustrators, vetting their pictures, doing images himself--and
collaborating, now and then, in the piracy of other people's work (44).
Michelson provides an extensive discussion of Clemens's engagement in the
American publishing industry, ranging from his early years as a printer's
devil and apprentice; to his successful years as an author in the stable of
the American Publishing Company and as a publisher himself with his
creation of the Charles L. Webster & Company; to his final years when he
was forced to relinquish control of his texts to the marketing and
production whims of Harper and Brothers. Throughout, Michelson frames his
discussion within a clear statement of purpose to review:
. . . how the life of Sam Clemens, and the career and public identity of
Mark Twain, took shape under the pressure of this revolution . . . to
observe how these technological transformations manifest themselves in Mark
Twain's texts--not only in their embellishment but also in how they are
written and structured as prose--and how this print revolution is engaged
as a _subject_ in these texts. . .[and to consider] the metaphoric presence
of the Mark Twain legacy, and its special importance now, in the midst of
another media revolution (19-20).
These purposes form the spine of the argument that flows through five
chapters and an afterword. In each of the chapters, Michelson spotlights
several of Clemens's major works and demonstrates how the technology of
publishing tied directly to Clemens's thinking about the creation of
literary art, both as a literary process and as a product shaped by the
available technology. This symbiotic link becomes especially clear as
Michelson examines _Innocents Abroad_, _A Tramp Abroad_, _Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn_, and _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_. There
are also substantial discussions of the _Mysterious Stranger_ manuscripts,
_Extracts from Adam's Diary_, _Eve's Diary_, and "King Leopold's Soliloquy."
Michelson provides a variety of careful, focused examinations of the
relation of illustration to text and the increasingly sophisticated weaving
of illustrations into the text. He also discusses Clemens's relationship
with various illustrators, especially E. W. Kemble, and of the changing
aesthetic and pre-modern sensibilities that drove the illustrations of
Clemens's later works, including Adam's and Eve's diaries. The advent of
the Kodak box camera becomes vital and offers genuine challenges to the
relationship between prose and picture when the photos of abuse in King
Leopold's Congo drag readers' attention away from Clemens's literary
soliloquy to confront readers with the reality of torture. Michelson's
discussion of the conflict between written and visual representation is
especially good here, as is his comment on the sophisticated manipulation
of some of the photographic evidence.
Perhaps most compelling is Michelson's chapter on _Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn_. The chapter forces us to confront the implications of
Huck's supposed authorship and to ask not only who is telling the story
(Huck? Mark Twain? Sam Clemens?) but also how readers can best juggle the
mix of time frames and the understandings or definitions of authorship that
plague the novel. Michelson begins his discussion: "Huck's comments about
that previous book and about the reliability of the man who wrote it
complicate the problem of who is speaking now, and where and when, and what
passes for 'truth' in _Tom Sawyer_, or in this new novel, or memoir, or
what it is that begins here" (119). The issues of authority and voice are
paramount and demonstrate the volatile nature of the narrative line. The
issues here revolve not only around Huck's voice but around the act of
authorship and, ultimately, the combination of text and illustration, all
of which leads readers to experience the collaborative nature of the novel.
The mix of time and place and voice and image upsets easy interpretation
and makes the novel new and subversive: "In several dimensions, this novel
is both an artifact of a new information age and a meditation on what it
meant to be an author amid the expansion of American publishing from the
time of Huck's boyhood on to the summer of 1883, when Mark Twain apparently
recovered his interest in the sequel, took up the manuscript again, and
completed it" (134). Ultimately, the novel aims at two audiences, which
deeply complicates the notion of a singular tale: "Mark Twain is writing
for a vast market; Huck himself, as a boy making a book, can harbor no such
intentions or dreams. This means that as readers we have two books for the
price of one, a naive personal history written or spoken by a boy in his
teens, fresh from a perilous experience on the Mississippi River and
telling it all essentially for his neighbors, and a performance by the most
celebrated humorist of the Gilded Age, crafted as a mass-market corporate
enterprise" (138).
In the end, this dual project offers a complicated picture of the
relationship between literacy of a peculiar and local sort to the expansion
of a broader cultural awareness, flawed as it is because of the lack of
control over the intersection of individual bits of knowledge and the
general dissemination of those bits by a publishing industry concerned only
with getting pages and images out to the masses. This is exemplified by
Huck's imperfect but certain knowledge of history and the duke and the
king's ability to use a shallow understanding of the world to manipulate a
small town audience. Michelson makes clear that the world of Huck Finn has
been and continues to be influenced by the broad distribution of culture, a
culture that is a shallow mix of image and fact. In short, _Huckleberry
Finn_ is about the spread of a shallow literacy. And in the end, Huck's
narrative, as a creative act, can be imagined as a complex act of refusal
and subversion. According to Michelson:
Mark Twain's impersonation of Huck is an act of subversion as well. Working
together, what do they subvert? The etiquette and the ostensible
reliability of the omniscient narrative voice, to be sure, but also the
constrictive civilities of an industrialized American literary culture,
orthodoxies of structure, form, plot, dictated by a publishing and
marketing system that was acquiring the pathologies of an industry. They
resist the disappearance of the author into the accumulation of his own
printed words, the compounding perils of modern literary success (163).
This is a very different conversation than the one we are most used to
hearing about the difficulties and transgressions of the novel. It is
refreshing. And it helps us see the role of the novel as a shaper of a
broad aesthetic discussion covering the warp and woof of nineteenth century
American literacy. And twenty-first century literacy as well.
Roughly three-quarters of the way through his book, Michelson offers this
summary:
Mark Twain's outbreaks of micromanagement, his reveries of long-range
success, and his harassment of managers, hired artists, engineers, and
anyone else who had professional dealings with him can be assembled into
one long tale of personal unhappiness, with enough character flaws in
evidence to suit a Eugene O'Neill. But that same body of evidence can be
read differently, and with stronger relevance to the present. Mark Twain
knew publishing: he knew printing; he knew what it took to be a
first-magnitude American author. With energy and prodigious experience, he
tried to dominate and was overwhelmed--and what figured most in bringing
him down, I think, was not some mythological Wheel of Fortune or tragic
flaw, but an onward rush of innovation so strong and treacherous that a man
who had known movable type and presses and writing since childhood could
not keep up with it all or stay out of its way (184).
Samuel Clemens is a representative figure, but not merely in the way that
we have come to be taught. True, he is involved in and helps to shape the
social and moral and political discussions of his time and of ours. But
here we have a Clemens who is deep in the center of a revolution that pulls
readers out of the nineteenth century toward a more complex understanding
of the role that print technology--and now the role of information
dissemination in the whole--plays in how we see the world either as
individuals or as a social group. Clemens's books and his artistic
understanding evolve and are made more complex and more resonant because of
his own understanding of the technology of print and its effects on readers
moving into the modern era. In all, Clemens's role as artist is much more
complex than one that is defined only by a writer's work in prose, and the
breadth and depth of his creative involvement can be appreciated best as we
come to see his strides and his successes and failures in multi-media
publication.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:30:50 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Michael MacBride <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Looking for a copy of Gribben's A Reconstruction of Mark
Twain's
Library...
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Hello everyone,
Does anyone have a copy they would be willing to part with? Or, have
any suggestions for finding one? Unfortunately the school library
doesn't own a copy, so I have to keep borrowing it via ILL and then I
only get to have it for a month (after renewing it once). And, it's
damn hard not to bookmark pages and write in the margins...
I've visited the usual sites, bestbookbuys.com, addall.com, half.com
(and ebay), bookfinder.com, powells.com, alibris.com, abebooks.com,
and just about every other site that came up on google.
Michael
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 16:19:47 EST
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David H Fears <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Looking for a copy of Gribben's A Reconstruction of Mark
Twain's Library...
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Ditto...I need the book for my WIP and have as yet come up empty.
Time and the right source waits for no man.
David H Fears
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 17:25:20 -0600
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Kevin. Mac Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Looking for a copy of Gribben's A Reconstruction of Mark
Twain's Library...
It's a rare book. The edition was just 500 copies if I recall correctly, and
most were sold quickly to libraries. Ex-library copies pop up now and then,
but it has become very difficult to find. This two volume set was fetching
over $200 when I last sold a copy a few years ago (not an ex-library set).
If I knew where any could be found at this very moment I'd by them myself
and try to fill the more than a dozen back-orders I have for it.
A new edition may appear "soon" with updated information for many of the
books Twain owned, and listings for new books from Twain's library that have
surfaced during the last 27 years. In the 1980 edition just five of the
books listed were books from Twain's library that I owned. The new edition
will list over 125 books (totalling 180 volumes) that I now own.
An astonishing percentage of the books listed in 1980 have changed ownership
in the last three decades, most by public auction or private sale (and many
have changed hands several times by both means), one large group (Katy
Leary's 89 volumes) was donated to a library (Elmira), another 60 were sold
by a library (Doheny), one group of about 100 from Clara's 1951 Hollywood
sale surfaced (stored in wooden barrels) a few years ago and were sold at
auction and are now at Hartford, and a large number of volumes not seen by
anyone since Twain's lifetime have turned up.
Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 07:55:07 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Carmela Valente <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: A great bunch
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Dear Forum:
I wish all of you the very best in the coming new year, and hope it is not
only a happy one but a healthy one. If I am asking too many questions, I am
sorry but "I ain't going no where". I love Twain, appreciate his works, and
even if I am not bogged down by the pressure of writing papers and producing
books,and after being an English lit major in college, am happy not to be),
my fascination with twain, his life and works will not be tempered by
anyone!
Bless all of you!
Camy