* • Mark Twain's Civil War *is now in stock at Amazon and other retailers: http://bit.do/fccK3 On Tue, Jul 30, 2019 at 3:06 PM Benjamin GRIFFIN <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > *Mark Twain’s Civil War*Edited and with an Introduction by Benjamin > Griffin > Published by Heyday (Berkeley, Calif.) in collaboration with The Bancroft > Library > 192 pp., hardcover > USD $25.00 / CAD $32.99 > > > Twenty years after Appomattox, Mark Twain published “The Private History > of a Campaign That Failed,” narrating his brief service in the Missouri > State Guard, an army raised to resist the state’s “invasion” by Union > troops. Ostensibly the story told what Clemens did (or, as he said, why he > “didn’t do anything”) in the Civil War; but its mixture of buffoonery and > earnestness did not meet with universal approval. Having gone public with > his history as a rebel, a deserter, and (as he claimed) a killer, Mark > Twain now faced the bitterest, most indignant backlash of his writing > career. “The Private History” still raises questions, and requires > questioning, today. > > The complex political situation in Missouri in 1861, and Mark Twain’s > genius for transforming life into fiction, have tended to obstruct > historical understanding of “The Private History.” In this new edition > Benjamin Griffin, of the Mark Twain Project, offers a critical text, > explanatory notes, and a 78-page introduction drawing on the holdings of > the Mark Twain Papers. > > The material published here for the first time includes a substantial and > virtuosic letter by Clemens, written from New Orleans on the day of > Louisiana’s secession. Nearly every Mark Twain document quoted, whether > story, letter or speech, is presented here in a newly edited text based on > better sources. Also reprinted here for the first time is an earlier text > of Absalom Grimes’s important memoir of the Ralls County Rangers. The > process by which Clemens was brought to go public with his Civil War > history is chronicled, as is his writing of the 1885 story. The text has E. > W. Kemble’s original illustrations, and the introduction is illustrated > with photographs from the holdings of the Mark Twain Papers and other > libraries. > > -- Benjamin Griffin Associate Editor, Mark Twain Project The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000 (510) 664-4238