great tribute, Shelley, thanks for that. Jim was one of the good guys; I am also struck by his friendship with the internationals, as recorded in this story I found, from a few years ago -- and it has a photo: http://baylorlariat.com/2010/11/30/retired-professor-continues-to-mentor-students/ -hb On Sat, Jul 5, 2014 at 4:36 PM, Shelley Fisher Fishkin < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > =20 > J. R. LeMaster is best known by Mark Twain scholars for having co-edited = > The Mark Twain Encyclopedia with Jim Wilson. But I think it=92s = > important to recall another, less-known contribution he made to Twain = > scholarship: he is responsible for having given readers in the = > English-speaking world access to an important commentary on Mark Twain = > published in China. > LeMaster had a long and deep connection to China that included spending = > two years in Beijing and publishing a moving bilingual book of his own = > poetry about China (Journeys Around China, Chinese translations by Sui = > Gang and Hua Zhi, published in China in 2003). But I am particularly = > indebted to him for having restored to us a major a speech delivered = > in Beijing by a leading Chinese writer in 1960 to commemorate the 50th = > anniversary of Mark Twain=92s death. > For decades, scholars had assumed this speech had been lost, but Le = > Master=92s determined searching over many years finally bore fruit. He = > and a Chinese scholar named Zhao Huazhi, managed to locate a copy. They = > arranged for it to be translated into English by Zhao Yuming and Sui = > Gang. Edited by J.R. Le Master, who worked with them on the = > translation, it was published in US-China Review in 1995. [US-China = > Review 19 (Summer 1995), pp. 11-15 as =93Mark Twain: Exposer of the = > Dollar Empire.=94 =20 > The speech was particularly noteworthy not only because Lao She was one = > the leading Chinese authors of the 20th century, but also because the = > aspects of Twain=92s social criticism that he highlighted were not = > particularly salient at mid-century in the US. Arguing that Twain=92s = > criticism of the =91Dollar Empire=92=94 =93has retained profound and = > immediate significance throughout the past half century,=94 Lao She = > asserted that =93Mark Twain=92s reprimand of the imperialist aggressive = > powers and sympathy for the anti-colonialist Asian and African people = > [are] especially significant. This is the part of his literary = > heritage we should value most.=94 But until the publication of Jim = > Zwick=92s book Mark Twain=92s Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist = > Writings on the Philippine-American War in 1992, this was probably the = > part of Twain=92s literary heritage that his countrymen valued least. = > (Virtually the only American critics paying attention to this aspect of = > Twain at the time Lao She made these remarks were Philip Foner and = > Maxwell Geismar.) > Although Lao She=92s speech served China=92s ruling interests at the = > time and contained some of the expected Cold War jargon, it also = > contained some insightful readings of pieces by Twain with which = > American readers were then largely unfamiliar. With a few exceptions = > Twain=92s trenchant critiques of the country he loved tended to be as = > ignored in the United States at midcentury as they were celebrated in = > China. =20 > Indeed, among the works Lao She mentioned in the 1960 speech was Twain=92s= > =93Treaty with China,=94 a piece so obscure that it was not reprinted = > from its original 1868 publication until Martin Zehr brought it to light = > in 2010 in the Journal of Transnational American Studies = > (http://escholarship.org/uc/item/5t02n32 =20 > In addition to being the 50th anniversary of Mark Twain=92s = > death, 1960 was the sixtieth anniversary of the anti-imperialist, = > anti-missionary Boxer Uprising in China. (Lao She had written a four-act = > play about this event titled Shen Ruan the same year that he gave this = > speech. ) Most Americans by 1960 had long forgotten the sympathy that = > Mark Twain had shown to the Boxers, but Lao She and his countrymen had = > not. Lao She quotes with approval Twain=92s comment, =93The Boxer is a = > patriot=85I wish him success. I am a Boxer myself.=94 > > Lao She was president of the National Association of Writers = > when he gave this speech. An influential novelist and dramatist, he was = > named =93The People=92s Artist=94 and played a prominent role in the = > Chinese literary establishment before he was purged from the Communist = > Party and became a victim of the Cultural Revolution (It is undisputed = > that Lao She delivered this speech. However, as I learned in 2009 from = > Gongzhao Li, the prominent Chinese poet and scholar, Yuan Kejia = > evidently claimed in a Chinese journal in 1985 that he was paid to write = > this speech for Lao She to deliver, and that he was its actual author = > despite the fact that the text continues to be widely credited to Lao = > She in China, and appears in his Collected Works. ) > I met J. R. LeMaster in 2006 when I gave a keynote talk at = > an American Studies Association of Texas at Baylor. He was kind enough = > to give me a copy of the piece that he had done so much to recover and = > get translated and published. He and I were both pleased that I was = > able to include the Lao She/Yuan Kejia speech in The Mark Twain = > Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work (Library of America, = > 2010). > I learned only last December, through correspondence with = > LeMaster, of the depth of his association with Lao She=92s family. = > LeMaster=92s book of poetry, Journeys Around China, includes a = > photograph of LeMaster with Lao She=92s son, Xu Yi, taken when LeMaster = > visited him in his home. Xu Yi was Director of the Beijing Library of = > Contemporary Literature and spent most of his life writing about his = > father. LeMaster wrote me that he got to know him quite well. LeMaster = > also directed the senior thesis of Lao She=92s granddaughter, although = > he notes that he left Chine before she completed it. During his stay = > in China, LeMaster conducted interviews with half a dozen Chinese = > writers, including =93a writer of opera who was beaten alongside Lao = > She.=94 LeMaster wrote me that =93Lao She drowned in Lake Kunming, = > either drowned himself or was murdered and thrown there. Xu Yi says he = > could stand no more humiliation and took his own life.=94 LeMaster = > noted that the interviews he conducted in China are in the oral history = > archives at Baylor. > According to LeMaster, three sets of government censors = > refused to let three different publishing houses publish his book of = > poems. The version of Journeys around China that finally appeared in = > China in 2003 omits about half of the original manuscript, including = > all the poems he wrote about the Tiananmen Square Massacre. Although the = > more political poems were cut by the censors, many of the poems that = > remain are quietly beautiful and evocative. > I feel compelled, on the occasion of his passing, to express = > my appreciation for LeMaster=92s determination to share a major Chinese = > commentary on Twain with the English-speaking world. I am personally = > grateful to him for having made me aware of it when he did. For = > encountering this text help make me realize that I had been largely = > oblivious, as a scholar, to he global body of commentaries on Mark = > Twain in languages other than English.=20 > That realization set in motion an odyssey that led me to = > seek out writing on Twain in languages other than English for The Mark = > Twain Anthology. In addition to leading to my discovery that the first = > book devoted to Mark Twain published anywhere was published in French in = > Paris in 1884, this journey led me to uncover interesting commentaries = > on Twain originally published in Chinese, Danish, French, German, = > Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Yiddish have all engaged Twain. = > In many cases, they had never been translated into English before. = > Previously untranslated texts included essays by Nobel Laureates from = > Denmark and Japan, by two of Cuba=92s most prominent public = > intellectuals, by Argentina=92s most celebrated author, by another = > famous Chinese writer, by a major Russian poet, and by respected writers = > from Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Soviet Union. I had the pleasure of = > sending a copy of the book to J. R. LeMaster not long after it came out. = > =20 > [For more on this topic, see my Mark Twain Anthology, and also my essay, = > =93American Literature in Transnational Perspective: The Case of Mark = > Twain.=94 Blackwell Companion to American Literary Studies, ed. Caroline = > F. Levander and Robert S. Levine (2011). Also relevant are Selina = > Lai=92s forthcoming book, Mark Twain in China to be published next year = > by Stanford University Press, and a project on =93The French Face of = > Twain=94 that Paula Harrington and Ronald Jenn are undertaking.] > The changes in my mental map that J. R. LeMaster helped set in motion = > have been profound. I am grateful for all he taught me. > =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D = > =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D =3D=20 > Shelley Fisher Fishkin=20 > Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities, Professor of English, and = > Director of American Studies, Stanford University=20 > Mail: Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA = > 94305-2087 > [log in to unmask] > https://english.stanford.edu/people/shelley-fisher-fishkin > =20 > > On Jul 3, 2014, at 4:24 PM, Kevin Bochynski <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > The following obituary appeared today in _The Crescent-News_, = > Defiance, Ohio, and will be of interest to members of the Mark Twain > > community. Dr. LeMaster was co-editor with James D. Wilson of _The = > Mark Twain Encyclopedia_ published by Garland in 1993. > >=20 > > Jimmie 'J.R' LeMaster > >=20 > > WACO, Texas -- Jimmie (J.R.) Ray LeMaster, Waco, died Sunday, June 29, = > 2014, > > at his residence. > >=20 > > He was born in Pike County, Ohio, to Dennis Samuel and Helen Algina = > (Smith) > > LeMaster on March 29, 1934. He attended Camp Creek Township Elementary > > School before moving to Washington Court House, Ohio, where he = > attended > > junior high and high school, moving to New Boston, Ohio,in his final = > year. > > He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1951, and served four years. Upon = > being > > discharged from the Navy, LeMaster moved to Defiance, Ohio, where he = > worked > > in an iron foundry and attended classes at Defiance College. > >=20 > > Upon graduation, he taught in local high schools before returning to = > his > > alma mater to teach in 1962, having completed a master of arts degree = > at > > Bowling Green State University. While working at Defiance College, he > > received his PhD degree from Bowling Green in 1970. He taught at = > Defiance > > College for 15 years before moving his family to Waco to teach at = > Baylor > > University in 1977. When he retired from Baylor in 2006, he had taught = > for > > 47 years, including two years in Beijing, People's Republic of China. > >=20 > > He was preceded in death by his parents; his wife, Wanda; his son, = > Lon; > > brother, Dennis and his wife, Karin; and half brother Tom McDowell. > >=20 > > He is survived by his two daughters, Lisa and DeNae, as well as his = > brother, > > Marvin and his wife, Shirley; half brother, Richard McDowell and his = > wife, > > Alice; sister-in-law, Patsy McDowell; and numerous nieces and nephews. > >=20 > > In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be made to The Wanda May = > LeMaster > > Service Award, c/o Michele Tinker, Defiance College, 701 Clinton St., > > Defiance, Ohio 43512; email address, [log in to unmask]; phone, > > 419-783-2303. > -- Prof. Harold K. Bush Professor of English 3800 Lindell Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h) <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>