Please post the following announcement. Symposium on Mark Twain and the Mississippi River In 2007 Bruce Michelson, then Vice President of the Mark Twain Circle, organized a roundtable discussion at the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal about the future of Mark Twain Studies. Given the event's success, the Museum is sponsoring a symposium this summer exploring the topic of "Mark Twain and the Mississippi River." The program is structured around presentations by five speakers who will address the program's theme. The event will be held on July 19th in the auditorium of the Mark Twain Museum Gallery at 120 North Main Street in downtown Hannibal. The event will begin at 1:00 and conclude by about 5:00. Audience members will have the opportunity to engage with accomplished scholars and professors who can offer insight into the works and ideas of the country's greatest humorist and social commentator. The keynote address by Thomas Ruys Smith, Lecturer in American Literature and Culture at the University of East Anglia in Great Britain will set the stage for the following four speakers. Smith will present from his work, River of Dreams, and then open up the floor for questions. After a brief break, four speakers will offer their views on specific aspects of Mark Twain's life and writing in relation to the Mississippi River with a break between the first and last two. They will also leave time for audience participation. The speaker's list includes Bruce Michelson, Professor of English at University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana and President of the Mark Twain Circle. Michelson is the author of Mark Twain on the Printer's Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution and will talk about "Sam Clemens and the Mississippi River Metropolis." Also presenting will be Tom Quirk, preeminent Twain scholar and Professor of English at University of Missouri - Columbia. Quirk is the editor of The Portable Mark Twain and author of the recently released Mark Twain and Human Nature. Professor Quirk has recommended an undergraduate student as a presenter. Conor Henley from University of Missouri - Columbia will talk about his essay titled "Mark Twain's River: A Semi-Technical Companion to Life on the Mississippi." Associate Professor Lawrence Howe at Roosevelt University and author of Mark Twain and the Novel: The Double-Cross of Authority will present his work "Reading and Writing the Mississippi" to complete the afternoon's program. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is sponsoring this program in partnership with the Missouri Humanities Council with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. Thank you Regina Faden, Ph.D. Executive Director Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum Hannibal, MO