> Too much whining in the profession these days, on both sides. (Well,
> there ARE those in the middle, I think I'm there myself, who are actually
> teaching instead of looking for enemies.)
>
> Glen Johnson
>
Hmmm . . . one of those "middle whiners," eh?
Just teasing, Glen. I'm kind of in the middle myself, though I try to
avoid being a fanatic moderate.
Jim McWilliams and I are putting together a book on Mark Twain and the
Critics. Those interested in the thread Wes started might wish to
contribute. We'll be glad to send the CFP to anyone who inquires.
Best,
Rick Hill
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 14:43:19 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Scott Dalrymple <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Queery
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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>It seems to me that the self-declared proponents of "just literature"
>are every bit as guilty as the politically correct crowd of setting
>up a situation where "if you're not with me, you're against me."
>Whatever happened to the open mind? To teaching as some kind of
>an adventure where even the teacher might experience some surprise
>and expansion?
Perhaps. I respect your opinion, and your right to it. I'm quite
interested in this topic, but I fear it may be somewhat off track to pursue
this much further on the Twain list. And I don't want this generally very
civil list to descend to the argumentative level of so many lesser
listservs. So I'll just accept the chastisement at this point, and sign
off on this issue.
Scott Dalrymple
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 11:42:58 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Kathy Farretta <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Queery
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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this is an interesting debate, interesting in that we have covered it
backwards and forwards in my seminars as a history grad student.
historians love to claim the objective "how it was" and deny that they
have an agenda of any sort. but to be truthful and honest this is not
possible. we all have an agenda of sorts which draws us to the study, and
creating, of history. mine is that i want to understand the past so i can
begin to figure out the future. sort of the still so naive and idealist
idea that if history repeats itself, somehow i can prevent us from
repeating some of the icky stuff...
what is interesting is that those who study literature--the great shaper
of discourse in society--have the same debate. i am under the distinct
impression that much of literature is written *specifically* to pursue an
agenda. certainly the study of what is written betrays an agenda by
simply what you choose to study. also, does it not betray the author if
we attempt to disconnect their greater agenda from their work?
i agree that there is a great deal of political correctness and pressure
to adhere to the general consensus. but what i do not agree with is that
this is anything new.
kathy farretta
northern arizona university
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 19:21:28 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Queery
MIME-version: 1.0
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Never hurts to stick in a sliver of irony.
Glad to get the discussion moving and
smiling.
wes
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 19:31:38 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Marcus W. Koechig" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Queery
Mime-Version: 1.0
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At 11:42 AM 9/3/97 -0700, Ms. Kathy Farretta wrote:
>this is an interesting debate, interesting in that we have covered it
>backwards and forwards in my seminars as a history grad student.
>
>historians love to claim the objective "how it was" and deny that they
>have an agenda of any sort. but to be truthful and honest this is not
>possible.
To this we should add the words of a contemporary of Mark Twain's, Ambrose
Bierce.
>From "The Devil's Dictionary":
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant,
which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly
fools.
Of Roman history, great Niebuhr's shown
'Tis nine-tenths lying. Faith, I wish 'twere known,
Ere we accept great Niebuhr as a guide,
Wherein he blundered and how much he lied.
Salder Bupp
Marcus W. Koechig
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 3 Sep 1997 21:26:21 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Kathy O'Connell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Queery
Wes--
As a working scribe, it already has begun to happen, viz., the number of
pieces generated in the last five days by the death of the Princess of
Wales--the press covering the press covering the press. And at least at my
closest cluster of academe, using literature as a social agenda instead of a
platform for learning and discourse is horribly entrenched.
Kathy O'Connell
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 09:52:09 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: John Bird <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Queery
MIME-version: 1.0
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Don't know if Wes Britton meant that spelling, but knowing him, I suspect he
did!
Whatever else about that kind of approach to literature, that is NOT the
state
of Mark Twain studies. As proof I offer all the papers from the recent
Elmira
conference. As I remarked to someone there, there were scant few (maybe one
or
two) papers with jargony, "Death of Literature" approaches. As we discussed
in
the critical theory session, that's never been the way of Mark Twain
studies.
Just a thought.
--
John Bird
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 11:20:18 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Guess what
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I recall that when I entered graduate school during the formalist
era, specifically during the transition from New Criticism to
phenomenology, American literature classes still taught Mark
Twain, because he was a "major author" after all, but most of the
scholars didn't know what to do with him. He was a major author
that not that many graduate students wanted to work on.
A friend of mine did a dissertation on Twain, and I remember him
concluding after a while that, well, Huck Finn was great despite being
pretty bad as "literature"; everything else he wrote was just a
mess. (Read, lacking in form.)
So then the sociologically oriented critics came blowing in, and suddenly
there were ways to talk a lot about Twain. And gradually we
started getting all kinds of really interesting discussions of things
like Private History of a Campaign that Failed, and Innocents Abroad,
and Connecticut Yankee.
So now, over the past decade we've started hearing over and over again how
we ought to study "just literature." What on earth does that mean?
As Twain folks, we ought to recognize that "just literature" is the
last thing Mark Twain is, and thanks for that.
As for political agendas, of course they're there. I feel pretty
strongly in my own teaching that the agendas I'm concerned with are
Mark Twain's, not my own, but I have learned a lot from people who
aren't so fastidious, so I'm not going to attack them. Besides, I'm
intelligent enough to understand what's going on, and so are my students.
And if they aren't, I'll try to help them develop the skills. Surely
that's in the spirit of Mark Twain. "Just literature" isn't.
Glen Johnson
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 10:28:18 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: JOSEPH B MC CULLOUGH <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Late Report on Elmira Conference
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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I would like to echo John Bird's sentiments about the success of the Elmira
Conference. The people attending were ample testimony that the Twain
scholars are indeed a lively and congenial group as opposed, say, to the
Kafka society.
As John pointed out, especially memorable was the first great Twain
smokeout, which took place on the original site of the octagonal study.
It was truly a spiritual experience, replete with accompanying thunder
and lightening, with Twain (it was believed by some) making a guest
appearance. So moved were we by the experience, that we were left choked
up.
Joe McCullough
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 19:07:49 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Queery
MIME-version: 1.0
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Just for the record--I had "odd" in mind
rather than what y'all think. As in offbeat, and
very appreciative of the thoughtful response to all
of you who wrote me off list. The ones I best
liked echoed what I said about inbreeding, and would
consider that before working on future projects.
And I hope that doesn't stay unusual.
king of spelling
wes britton
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 4 Sep 1997 23:08:02 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jim McWilliams <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: SAMLA Conference
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
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Hello all--
While I know that the SAMLA conference will be in Atlanta in November, I
don't have any other information about it. If someone could please send me
details (which hotel it is at, how I register, etc.), I'd be grateful.
Thanks in advance.
Jim McWilliams
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 5 Sep 1997 12:54:29 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From: "KEVIN J. BOCHYNSKI" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: (Fwd) Overland Monthly articles and more on the Web
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Date: Fri, 05 Sep 1997 12:21:17 +0000
From: "Jim Zwick" <@@syr.edu>
Subject: (Fwd) Overland Monthly articles and more on the Web
To: "KEVIN J. BOCHYNSKI" <[log in to unmask]>
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Dear Kevin,
I sent this message to the Forum on Sept. 2 but haven't seen it come
through. I'm not sure if that means it wasn't distributed or if the
problem is at my end (I have received other recent posts). If you
also did not receive it, would you please forward it to the list for
me? Thanks.
Jim Zwick
------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
It seems I've come across dozens of new Twain items on the
Web in the last couple of weeks. Here are some of the highlights:
1. The University of Michigan's Making of America site
(http://www.umdl.umich.edu/moa/) includes page images of the
articles Twain contributed to the Overland Monthly while preparing
_The Innocents Abroad_ and an 1898 article by Theodore de Laguna
on "Mark Twain as Prospective Classic." They are at:
By Rail Through France (July 1868)
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/cgi-bin/moa/viewitem.stable/mm000051/1353over/v0001/i001/00140018.tif?config=moa&frame=noframe&userID=NoUserID&dpi=4
A Californian Abroad: A Few Parisian Sights (Aug. 1868)
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/cgi-bin/moa/viewitem.stable/mm000051/1353over/v0001/i002/01160120.tif?config=moa&frame=noframe&userID=NoUserID&dpi=4
A Californian Abroad: Three Italian Cities (Sept. 1868)
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/cgi-bin/moa/viewitem.stable/mm000051/1353over/v0001/i003/02050209.tif?config=moa&frame=noframe&userID=NoUserID&dpi=4
A Californian Abroad: A Mediaeval Romance (Oct. 1868)
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/cgi-bin/moa/viewitem.stable/mm000051/1353over/v0001/i004/03120316.tif?config=moa&frame=noframe&userID=NoUserID&dpi=4
Mark Twain as Prospective Classic, by Theodore de Laguna (April 1898)
http://www.umdl.umich.edu/cgi-bin/moa/viewitem.stable/mm000083/1398over/v0031/i184/03740364.tif?config=moa&frame=noframe&userID=NoUserID&dpi=4
2. California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early
Years, 1849-1900, at the Library of Congress American Memory Project
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbhome.html
This site includes:
_Roughing It_ (full text and most illustrations)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(197T00)):@@@$REF$
Gold and Sunshine, by James J. Ayres, chapter 22 on Twain's trip
to Hawaii
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(006D0022)):
Pioneer Journalism in California, by Samuel C. Upham
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(149D0026)):
Six Years' Experience as a Book Agent in California, by Mrs. J. W. Likins,
chapter 11 on her experience selling _Roughing It_ in San Francisco
and Santa Clara County (she sells other Twain books in other
chapters)
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/calbk:@field(DOCID+@lit(143D0011)):
Don't be fooled by the title of this collection. Many of the authors of
the books included also spent time in Nevada, Hawaii (Sandwich
Islands), and elsewhere so it can be used as a more general
resource on the West of that era.
3. The Modern English Collection at the Electronic Text Center,
University of Virginia
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modeng0.browse.html
A number of Twain texts have been added since I last checked
this archive, including "Sociable Jimmy," Paul Fatout's composite text of
the "Sandwich Islands" lecture, and more (thanks to Stephen Railton for
producing most if not all the new texts). Also of interest here:
A New England Literary Colony, by By E. Sherman Echols,
_Munsey's Magazine_ (Sept. 1895), on Nook Farm
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/browse-mixed-new?id=EchNewe&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed
4. I'm working on a series about Twain's trip to Hawaii at my own
site and have put quite a few related texts online there as well,
including the five Hawaiian sketches from _The Jumping Frog of
Calaveras County_, the letters home included in Paine's edition
of the letters, the 1873 letters to the New York Tribune, the chapters
from Paine's biography, and some others. The only major writings
I know of that are not available on the Web are the notebooks (they're
not in the public domain). A directory of Twain's writings and lectures
on Hawaii, biographical and critical accounts, and some pages
about related places and issues (Hawaiian sovereignty, etc) is
available at:
http://marktwain.miningco.com/library/texts/bl_hawaiiweb.htm
5. Banned Books Week at the American Library Association. Its
Challenged and Banned Books page lists Huckleberry Finn and
Mark Twain among the ten most frequently challenged books and
authors of 1996
http://www.ala.org/bbooks/challeng.html
Jim Zwick
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 14:34:17 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Review: Leon, _Mark Twain and West Point_
[N.B. This review was written by Alan Gribben, on whose behalf I am merely
posting it. --T.R.]
BOOK REVIEW
Philip W. Leon. _Mark Twain and West Point: America's Favorite
Storyteller at the United States Military Academy_. Toronto: ECW
Press, 1996. Preface by Louis J. Budd. Pp. 276. Includes
bibliographical references and index. Paper, 6" x 9". $15.95. ISBN
1-55022-277-5.
Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Alan Gribben <[log in to unmask]>
Auburn University at Montgomery
Copyright (c) 1997 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be
published or redistributed in any medium without permission.
Literary studies of major American authors have reached such a state of
specialization that hardly anyone can predict what ingenious topic might
be explored next, or foresee the rewarding results of this keenly focused
research. When Philip W. Leon brings an intense spotlight to bear upon
Mark Twain's relationship with the United States Military Academy, only
the most knowledgeable scholars would recall that Twain occasionally
lectured at the institution, and even they are unlikely to realize that
within a fifteen-year span beginning in 1876 he mingled with the cadets at
least ten times, watching their drills and parades, sitting in their
classrooms, regaling them with his jokes and tales.
Twain's free performances obtained for him a close view of an elite corps
in which fewer than half the entering cadets completed their studies and
graduated. Within the ranks of the instructors and administrators he
encountered men who had seen extensive action in the Civil War and in the
campaigns against the Plains Indians. "All I know about military matters
I got from the gentlemen at West Point, and to them belongs the credit,"
Mark Twain acknowledged in 1881. Out of these repeated visits came a
cordial and reciprocal correspondence; _Mark Twain and West Point_
collects and publishes dozens of letters that Twain exchanged with cadets
and officers whom he came to know at the academy. Moreover, Leon
helpfully reprints the lectures and readings with which Twain entertained
the assembled cadets, and also reproduces the risque text of the sixty-
copy private edition of _1601_ that Lieutenant Charles Erskine Wood
daringly published on the West Point printing press in 1882.
More revealingly, Leon reviews and analyzes the various uses Twain made of
West Point as literary material in a wide range of his writings. For
example, Judge Thatcher vows to send Tom Sawyer to West Point in _The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ (1876), and Hank Morgan establishes his own
version of this celebrated military academy in _A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur's Court_ (1889). In chapter 38 of the latter work, Twain
introduces the anachronism of knights mounted on bicycles to rescue Hank
Morgan and King Arthur; Leon reminds readers that the United States army
was undertaking serious experiments with bicycles for infantrymen at the
time Twain was writing his novel. A contemporary photograph of army
troops bicycling near Fort Missoula, Montana (p. 93) makes Twain's
imagined scene of wheeling knighthood seem less far-fetched. Even the
grisly ending of _A Connecticut Yankee_ probably owed a debt to
battlefield spectacles recounted by Twain's friend Major General Nelson A.
Miles and other veteran officers whom Twain encountered at the academy.
The narrative of Twain's "Which Was the Dream?" (1967), written in 1897,
disturbingly connects West Point with troubling domestic memories.
Not all aspects of West Point life earned Mark Twain's admiration. During
a national controversy in 1900 and 1901 over the severity of several
hazing cases at the school (one of which had allegedly caused the death of
a cadet), Twain publicly denounced the upperclassmen involved as "bullies
and cowards." Leon's book concludes with a look at Mark Twain's anti-
imperialist views and his reluctant position on the American policy in the
Philippines that put him at odds with academy graduates serving in the
field.
_Mark Twain and West Point_ documents a sanctioned series of carefree
escapes that Mark Twain engineered from his genteel Hartford household in
order to frolic with the "boys" at an all-male academy. Libraries
collecting significant secondary sources about Twain and his era assuredly
should acquire Leon's informative and suggestive study.
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 18:49:00 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Review: Evans, _A Tom Sawyer Companion_
[N.B. The following review was authored by Carolyn Richey, on whose
behalf I am merely posting it. --T.R.]
BOOK REVIEW
Evans, John D. _A Tom Sawyer Companion: An Autobiographical Guided
Tour with Mark Twain_. Lanham, Maryland: University Press of
America, 1993. Pp. xiii + 113. Cloth. $37.50. ISBN 0-8191-9059-4.
Paper. $14.95. ISBN 0-8191-9060-8.
This book and many others are available at discounted prices from the
TwainWeb Bookstore, and purchases from this site generate commissions
that benefit the Mark Twain Project. Please visit
<http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/forum/>.
Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Carolyn Leutzinger Richey <[log in to unmask]>
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA
Copyright (c) 1997 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be
published or redistributed in any medium without permission.
One of the things that first drew me to the study of Mark Twain was the
connection the author and I share. This common connection is that we both
grew up in Missouri, not far from the Mississippi River; he grew up in
Hannibal, and I grew up in St. Louis. I think this same desire to
establish a connection is what draws many to the study of Twain. Perhaps,
for the reader of _Huck Finn_, the connection is a shared abhorrence of
the injustices one sees in society. These can be the same injustices that
Mark Twain wrote about--inequality among the races or classes, despite the
separation of a century.
The readers of Twain's classic boy's tale _Tom Sawyer_ also look to make
connections. With the young audience, the connection might be the similar
adventures of growing up; with the older audience, the connection might be
the nostalgic remembrance of those same adventures. Whichever audience,
John D. Evans' _Tom Sawyer Companion_ makes and explains those connections
for all readers of _Tom Sawyer_.
When I first received and read this book, I was scheduled to speak on Mark
Twain in a local junior high English teacher's classes. Her students, my
twelve-year-old daughter among them, were in the midst of reading _Tom
Sawyer_, some struggling to keep up with the nineteenth-century vernacular
dialect of Missouri, and others totally immersed in Tom, Joe, Becky, and
Huck's escapades. From the beginning of my talk, I could tell which
students were in which of the two groups, because those from the latter
group eagerly raised their hands to ask questions about Twain and his
story. They wanted to make connections between the story and the author
and themselves. As I began to answer their questions and offer those
connections to them, the former group became involved. They began to make
their own connections.
Now I can't say that I had all the answers to their questions. But
without Evans' book, subtitled _An Autobiographical Guided Tour with Mark
Twain_, I would not as readily have been able to answer their questions or
make those connections. Evans' book provides the link from the escapades
of Tom Sawyer to Sam Clemens' boyhood in Hannibal. As Evans states in the
introduction to his book, his "focus is Twain, and [his book] is written
for anyone who has read _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ and enjoys Mark
Twain as both a writer and a unique individual" (xii). To achieve these
purposes, Evans divides his book into chapters that look at, one by one,
scenes from _Tom Sawyer_; each section is partitioned into three segments.
In the first segment, Evans offers in italics a brief summary of the
scene, then quotes in boldfaced type the referenced text from _Tom
Sawyer_, which he claims are "the events or experiences that have their
roots in reality" (xii). Finally, in the third part of each section, he
gives, in plain type, an autobiographical account from Clemens' life that,
as he expresses it, "reveals those roots" (xiii). Thus, Evans connects
the dots to give us a sketch of Sam Clemens the real man through Tom
Sawyer the fictional boy.
The body of this book comprises 47 chapters referring to the same number
of reality-based scenes from _Tom Sawyer_. From the "opening scene of
_Tom Sawyer_ [where] Aunt Polly searches for Tom and finds him hiding in
a closet with the tell-tale evidence of jam on his face and hands" (1) to
"the end of [the] chronicle" (101) where Twain writes that "most of the
characters that perform in this book still live" (101), John Evans
amplifies Clemens' remembrance of his boyhood through _Tom Sawyer_ via
such scenes as this first distraction from punishment that Tom
successfully carries out. Evans cites Twain's autobiographical reference
to his thirteen-year-old daughter Susy's biography of him as verification
of the history of this particular incident. He quotes and explains, "Susy
wrote: 'Clara and I are sure papa played the trick on Grandma about the
whipping, that is related in _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_.' Mark
Twain's terse comment was: 'Susy and Clara were quite right about
that'" (1).
Any reader of Mark Twain will recall his frequent references to cats and
will also realize that Clemens loved cats. But Evans, in chapter 29, "The
Cat and the Painkiller," also clarifies Jane Clemens' own befriending of
animals. In this section, Evans first summarizes chapter 12 of _Tom
Sawyer_, in which "Tom professes to like painkiller and requests it so
often that Aunt Polly allows him to take it unsupervised," and eventually
administers an overdose of the painkiller to his cat (61). Evans goes on
to quote Aunt Polly (the character whom he has already explained is based
on Sam's mother Jane Clemens), when she "raised him up by the usual
handle--his ear--and cracked his head soundly with her thimble. 'Now,
sir, what did you want to treat that poor dumb beast so, for?'" (61).
Evans completes this link from Tom to Sam by quoting Twain's
_Autobiography_:
That sort of interference in behalf of abused animals was a common
thing with her [Jane Clemens'] life. . . . All the race of dumb
animals had a friend in her. . . . We had nineteen cats at one time,
in 1845. . . . They were a burden to us all--including my mother--but
they were out of luck, and that was enough; they had to stay. . . .
An imprisoned creature was out of the question--my mother would not
have allowed a rat to be restrained of its liberty. (61)
Weaving them throughout _A Tom Sawyer Companion_, Evans makes abundant
connections between the author and his character. Some are obvious; some
are more obscure. But Evans effectively offers the reader a detailed road
map of Clemens' young life in Hannibal, even to the famous cave. In
chapter 41, "Caves," Evans offers a photograph of the real "McDowell's
Cave" and makes the connection to the fictional "McDougal's Cave" in which
the children get lost and Injun Joe perishes. The legendary cave
described in _Tom Sawyer_ as "a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran
into each other and out again and led nowhere" (89) was virtually "an
uncanny place, for it contained a corpse--the corpse of a young girl of
fourteen" (89). In this passage from the _Autobiography_, Evans
corroborates the legend of Dr. McDowell and his "experiment to see if a
human body would petrify" (89). On my own recent pilgrimage to Hannibal
and tour of the cave, the guide related--almost verbatim from the
_Autobiography_--Dr. McDowell's experiment and the childish games the
local spelunkers played at the expense of his poor deceased daughter's
body.
Throughout the book, Evans furnishes even more connections to Twain by
providing 22 photographs that allude to many of these same scenes and
characters from Clemens' life. In chapter 12, for example, Evans displays
an 1874 photograph of Clemens that "reveals his 'dense ruck of short
curls,'" which in chapter 4 of _Tom Sawyer_ "filled [Tom's] own life with
bitterness" (22-23). Evans includes other pictorial links, including the
Boyhood Home, the School House, the Steamboat Philadelphia, and the home
of Tom Blankenship. Evans explains the significance of Blankenship in
chapter 18, "The Homeless Outcast." Again he quotes both _Tom Sawyer_ and
the _Autobiography_. In the fictional tale, Huck is described as "the
pariah of the village . . . [who was] idle and lawless and vulgar and
bad--and . . . all [the] children admired him so," while the
_Autobiography_ reveals that
'Huckleberry Finn' was Tom Blankenship. Tom's father was at one time
Town Drunkard, an exceedingly well-defined and unofficial office of
those days. . . . He was the only really independent person--man or
boy--in the community, and by consequence he was envied by all the
rest of us . . . and therefore we sought and got more of his society
than that of any other boy's." (35)
Again, another connection is made, not only between _Tom Sawyer_ and
Clemens' life, but also between Twain's quintessential American novel
_Huckleberry Finn_ and the author's life.
Evans concludes his enlightening saga of Twain's fictionalized
autobiography with a letter Sam wrote to his wife Livy from Quincy,
Illinois, on 17 May 1882: "I have spent three delightful days in Hannibal,
loitering around all day long, examining the old localities and talking
with the greyheads who were boys and girls with me 30 or 40 years ago. It
has been a moving time. . . . That world which I knew in its blossoming
youth is old and bowed and melancholy now. Its soft cheeks are leathery
and wrinkled. The fire is gone out in its eyes and the spring from its
step. It will be dust and ashes when I come again" (101). Through this
and the myriad of other explanations and links, the readers of _Tom
Sawyer_ and _A Tom Sawyer Companion_ are allowed the same "delightful days
in Hannibal."
=========================================================================
Date: Thu, 11 Sep 1997 23:04:47 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Mark Twain: Ultimate Smoker
The latest issue of _Pipes and Tobaccos_ magazine (2.3 [Fall 1997])
features the cover story, "Mark Twain: Ultimate Smoker" (pp. 34-41).
The article, by Chuck Stanion <[log in to unmask]>--a member of the
Forum--features several good photos, and the cover has a great sepia
tone photo of Clemens. From the article:
Clemens was a man of many vocations: printer, riverboat pilot,
silver and gold miner, newspaperman, lecturer, world-traveling
correspondent, humorist, publisher, inventor, speculator, novelist,
man of letters, American icon--but he had one identity that never
altered: he was resolutely, inflexibly, unshakably a smoker. (36)
The article is the first of a two-part series. The editorial in this
issue also contains a plea to save the imperilled Mark Twain Project:
The Mark Twain Project houses letters, manuscripts, dictations,
notebooks, photographs, and literary fragments that are essential
to scholars, and regularly publishes definitive versions of those
works, as well as previously unpublished pieces. The tight focus
of our article--Twain's pipe smoking--would have been impossible
without the Mark Twain Project's ongoing publication of Twain's
letters and notebooks. (6)
Photos of some of Clemens' receipts from tobacco and pipe purchases are
reproduced courtesy of MTP (39).
For subscription info about _Pipes and Tobaccos_, send e-mail to
<[log in to unmask]>.
Best regards,
Taylor Roberts
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 14:47:47 GMT0BST
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: PETER MESSENT <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Arts Faculty, Univ of Nottingham
Subject: Re Wapping Alice
I suspect I should already know this, but can anyone tell me if (and
where) 'Wapping Alice' is in print? Cheers. Pete Messent
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 11:15:45 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Robert Hirst <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Re Wapping Alice
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
*Wapping Alice* was published as a Friends of The Bancroft Library keepsake
in 1981, edited by Hamlin Hill. The Friends exhausted their supply of
copies some years ago, but the little book can usually be picked up used
for about $10.
Bob Hirst
MTP
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 11:23:44 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Victor Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Re Wapping Alice
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Dear Peter:
"Wapping Alice" was published in 1981 in a Bancroft Library Keepsake:
*Wapping Alice: Printed for the First Time, Together with Three Factual
Letters to Olivia Clemens; Another Story, "The McWilliamses and the
Burglar Alarm"; and Revelatory Portions of the Autobiographical Dictation
of April 10, 1907, Comprising the Evidence in the Curious Affair of
Lizzie Wills and Willie Taylor, by Samuel L. Clemens.* With an
Introduction and Afterword by Hamlin Hill (Berkeley: The Friends of The
Bancroft Library, 1981).
Yours sincerely,
Vic Fischer
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 14:40:22 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David Rachels <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Re Wapping Alice
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
At 11:23 AM 9/12/97 -0700, you wrote:
>"Wapping Alice" was published in 1981 in a Bancroft Library Keepsake.
As of this moment, there are two copies of this available for sale via the
Bibliofind database at
http://www.bibliofind.com/
I believe that one of the two book dealers is asking $40, and the other,
$25.
David Rachels
Virginia Military Institute
=========================================================================
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 22:30:32 PDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Mike Pearson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Sacred Use of Tobacco
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
http://www.ucsc.edu:80/costano/tobacco1.html
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 13 Sep 1997 19:43:04 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: John Bird <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Mark Twain: Ultimate Smoker
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Speaking of smoking, at the Elmira conference, Everett Emerson gave a very
interesting paper about Mark Twain's lifelong habit. By the end, he
suggested
that lifelong second-hand smoke may have contributed to Olivia's death.
John Bird
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 12:53:46 -0700
Reply-To: Kathy Farretta <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Kathy Farretta <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: CFP: Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Symposium
Comments: To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask],
[log in to unmask]
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Please note we've extended the deadline for abstracts and panel proposals
to September 30th. Also, I am happy to announce our keynote speaker: Dr.
Devon Pena, Associate Professor of Sociology at Colorado College. Please
visit our web site for more information. http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~gsis-p
1997 Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Symposium
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Arizona
Call for Papers
Theme: Exploring Issues of Global Diversity in Science, the Environment,
Society, the Arts, and Humanities.
The Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Symposium is organizing its seventh
annual program, to be held on the campus of Northern Arizona University in
Flagstaff, Arizona, November 6-8, 1997. This event is organized by and for
graduate students in all fields of study and in the past has attracted
participants from all over the United States as well as several foreign
countries.
Graduate students in all disciplines are invited to submit proposals for
panels or individual papers on topics that relate to Global Diversity.
Panel topics will include, but are not limited to: Social Justice,
Advancing Minorities in the Sciences, Indigenous Women's Issues,
Globalization & Identity, Environmental Justice, International Human
Rights, American Indian Policy: Enduring Issues, Democratic
Environmentalism, and Political Poster Presentations. The Program
Committee is especially interested in new and broad interpretations of the
subject. If there is sufficient interest, a gallery showing of artistic
interpretations, commentary, and music on the topic can be organized as
well. Cash prizes will be awarded for the best four submissions.
Proposals should include an abstract for individual papers. Panel
proposals should include a description of the topic and of the individuals
involved. Students entering papers in the prize competition should submit
a copy of the completed work to one of the co-coordinators. Abstracts and
panel proposals should be sent to the committee by September 30, 1997.
Copies of full papers submitted for award competition must be received by
October 20, 1997.
Registration Fee: $10.00 and Dinner (Friday, November 7, 1997) Fee:
$10.00/per person.
To submit abstracts, papers, or to receive further information, including
registration materials, contact:
Program Committee: Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Symposium
Department of History, Northern Arizona University
P.O. Box 6023, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011
(520) 523-4378 FAX (520) 523-1277
The GSIS is an excellent opportunity for Graduate Students to present
their work. For further information please contact the co-coordinators:
Kathy Farretta, Dept. of History, 520-523-4378 [log in to unmask]
Karen Ziemski, Dept of Political Science,520-523-9260 [log in to unmask]
http://dana.ucc.nau.edu/~gsis-p
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 13:28:13 EDT
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Carolyn L. Richey" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Fingerprints
A student of mine had a question about Twain's use of Fingerprints in
_Pudd'nhead Wilson_. It seems as if I have heard this answer discussed
somewhere before, but I can't remember so I told him I'd bring it to the
forum.
He asks: Was this the first time fingerprints were widely discussed in
an American literary text?
Thanks for your input,
Carolyn L. Richey
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 14:53:55 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Lawrence Howe <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Carolyn--
See Mike Rogin's piece in Gillman and Robinson, eds. _Mark Twain's PW:
Race, Conflict and Culture (Duke UP, 1990) on the connection between
_PW_ and Francis Galton's _Fingerprints_ published in 1892.
I think it's worth noting, though, that _LOM_'s Karl Ritter story turns
on the identification of a murderer on the basis of a thumbprint. And
Poe's detective Dupin used pantograph tracings of the finger marks left
on the victim's throat in "Rue Morgue" to identify the murderer as an
orangutan. This takes nothing away from Rogin's thesis regarding
Dalton, but it does suggest that Twain's interest in fingerprints and the
idea of their significance long before that was scientifically
confirmed no doubt whetted Twain's interest in Galton all the more.
Larry Howe
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 15:57:15 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: PENNY <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
In-Reply-To: "Your message dated Tue, 16 Sep 1997 13:28:13 -0400 (EDT)"
<[log in to unmask]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Mark Twain also discussed *fingerprints* in LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI and
produced an illustation of fingerprints to go along with the text. Of
course,
his work with fingerprints was more sophisticated by the time he wrote
PUDD'NHEAD. There are several articles on where he received his background
information on this new technique. When I am near my resources -- and if
someone else hasn't already answered, I'll give you documentation.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 16:06:48 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: John Davis <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Chowan College
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Carolyn,
As far as I know, their use in -Pudd'nhead Wilson- was the first
time fingerprints had been used in fiction to solve a crime and in a
trial to prove a point. Certainly, in fictional chronology, because
PW is set before the War for Southern Independence, their use
in it precedes others.
I know of no prior appearance in American literature.
Do you know of an earlier use of electrified fences to kill than
that in -A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court-? Or of
machine guns to shoot soldiers in trenches in the same novel?
While we're at it, aren't the first telephone in fiction, the first
long-distance phonecall, the first portable phone, the first
courtship by phone, the first overheard phone conversation, the
first phone scam, and the first wedding by phone in the short story,
"The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton"?
John H. Davis, Ph.D.
Chowan College
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 17:32:07 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: peter heck <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Twain used fingerprints (thumbprints, to be exact) in an episode of =Life On
the Mississippi=, the 'Richter" story about hidden treasure in Napoleon,
Arkansas. According to the various histories of police work I have read,
that is the earliest mention in a literary text of fingerprint evidence to
find a criminal.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 18:24:38 CST
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
I don't have my resources with me, but is it possible that the
Sherlock Holmes story
involving a bloody thumbprint predates the Twian refrence. I doubt it's an
earlier
mention, but then, I don't know.
I think the title was "The Norfolk Builder," or something similar.
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 16 Sep 1997 18:33:25 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
The Sherlock Holmes story is _The Adventure of the Norwood Builder_
from The Return of Sherlock Holmes. I don't have a date but the story
involves a "forged" thumb print.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 07:55:33 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: peter heck <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
"The Adventure of the Norwood Builder" was published in _Collier's_, October
1903., so it is definitely of later date than Twain's first use of
fingerprints.
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 07:46:41 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: David Rachels <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Fingerprints
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
This is an entry from Matthew E. Bunson's _Encyclopedia Sherlockiana_
(Macmillan, 1994), to which I have added publication dates:
FINGERPRINT. The mark left by the fingertip provides a nearly infallible
means of identification. Holmes noted that a letter from Neville St. Clair
to his wife had been posted by a man with a dirty thumb in "The Man with the
Twisted Lip" (December 1891); he finds two thumb marks on "The Cardboard
Box" (January 1893) mailed to Susan Cushing; and dismissed the thumb mark on
the envelope of the letter sent to Mary Morstan as probably that of the
postman in _The Sign of Four_ (February 1890). A thumb mark made in blood
that was found at Deep Dene House seemed to provide the final, absolutely
damning proof that Jonas Oldacre had been murdered by the unfortunate John
Hector McFarlane, but Homles found it to be crucial in proving his innocence
in "The Norwood Builder" (October 1903). Interestingly, the "advances" made
in fingerprint analysis by Holmes were a model for Scotland Yard, which
began using the fingerprint for identification starting in 1901.
David Rachels
Virginia Military Institute
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 1997 17:46:50 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Patricia Lods <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: book search
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Am searching for Volume XII (Tom Sawyer) of Mark Twain's Authorized National
Edition, which was marketed in 1911.
The cover is red, and a shilouette of MT bust embossed on the front of each
book in this set.
We have the entire set except for this volume 12.
Hopefully
Pat Lods
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 21:40:17 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "KEVIN J. BOCHYNSKI" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: The Official Mark Twain Forum T-Shirt
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
Now available from the Mark Twain Forum!
The Official Mark Twain Forum T-Shirt
* In 100% cotton for quality, durability,
and maximum comfort.
* Color: Royal Gold, with the Mark Twain Forum logo and Forum e-mail
address imprinted in black.
* Available in the following adult sizes: Medium, Large, Extra Large.
* Reasonably priced at: $12.95 each (postage paid). (Note: For orders
outside of the U.S., an additional charge for postage will be
required. Please contact the List Administrator for details.)
This T-shirt was unveiled on August 14, 1997 at "The State of Mark Twain
Studies" conference in Elmira, New York. Your overwhelmingly positive
response to the design makes this project possible.
Emblazoned with the distinctive Mark Twain Forum logo, photos of the
T-shirt (modeled by Forum members) may be seen at the TwainWeb
site at:
http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/forum/
Also, while you are there, be sure to visit the Photo Gallery for a
new selection of photos taken during the Elmira conference.
Wear your Official Mark Twain Forum T-shirt proudly AND help the Mark Twain
Project.
ALL PROFITS FROM THE SALE OF "THE OFFICIAL MARK TWAIN FORUM T-SHIRT" WILL
BE DONATED TO THE MARK TWAIN PROJECT IN BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA.
The MTP is facing a crisis due to severe cut-backs in government funding.
Here is a way to "show your colors," get a great looking T-shirt and help
support the work of a national treasure--the principal repository of Mark
Twain's manuscripts, letters and many other important documents.
Buy several--Mark Twain Forum T-shirts make great gifts for any occasion.
With each purchase, you will be declaring your support for the Mark Twain
Project and helping them to continue the invaluable work of preserving and
publishing the tangible legacy of America's foremost author.
To order, send check or money order to:
Kevin J. Bochynski, List Administrator
Mark Twain Forum
161 Cabot Street
Beverly, MA 01915
Be sure to state quantities and sizes desired. Please make check payable
to: Kevin Bochynski.
(N.B.: Since The Mark Twain Forum never collects subscription fees from its
members, the Forum does not have a bank account. We cannot accept charge
card orders or C.O.D.'s. Do not send cash.)
For questions or further information, contact Kevin Bochynski at:
[log in to unmask]
=========================================================================
Date: Sun, 21 Sep 1997 23:27:27 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: John Bird <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Call For Paper
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII
The lack of an "s" is intentional. I need one paper for a session for the
Philological Association of the Carolinas annual meeting in Spartanburg, SC
at
Converse College, March 19-21, 1998. If you're interested and KNOW you can
come
, please send me an abstract of a paper on Mark Twain, along with addresses
and
a brief c.v. The deadline for me to send the session info in is October 1,
so I
need this in the next week. One more paper will make a session. Thanks!
John Bird
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 14:32:47 -0500
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: Brian Rust's reply
In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
On Tue, 12 Aug 1997, James Edstrom wrote in regard to the possible
existence of a Twain wax cylinder recording:
> I've noticed that this question has come up periodically on this listserv.
> I've always hoped that someday someone might find a recording that can be
> verified. Last year, I ran across a reference in this source to something
> that gave me a little hope:
>
> Rust, Brian A. L. Discography of historical records on cylinders and
> 78s. Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 1979.
>
> There is a citation to a speech that Twain supposedly recorded; Brian Rust
> puts the date at "1895?", as I recall; it's been a while since I saw the
> reference, and my memory might be inaccurate. The citation, however,
> does not say anything about where this recording is kept. If Mr. Rust is
> still alive (he'd be 75 now), he might be able to provide more details.
Mr. Rust is indeed still alive and living in England.
I recently contacted him regarding his reference citation to a
wax cylinder recording of a speech Twain made in New York, c. 1895.
According to Rust he has no further information regarding
the wax cyliner. He writes, "I read of it in some magazine many
years ago, but as I recall, there was no indication that it had
survived." Rust also suggests an inquiry be made to Prof.
Allen Debus of Deerfield, Illinois who may have further info
regarding the recording in question.
Barb
=========================================================================
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 1997 06:59:46 -0500
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: "Twain too profane" headlines
MIME-version: 1.0
Content-type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
Another Twain controversy over _Tom Sawyer_ as well as other
well known classics is reported in a news article appearing
on the front page of the Fort Worth Star Telegram today.
The online story is available at:
http://www.star-telegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:NEFRONT35/1:NEFRONT35092497.html
Barb
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 01:19:16 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jack Grimes <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Twain's Story in Other Media?
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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Everyone-
I've exhausted just about every resource I could think of, yet I haven't
even come close to an answer. Does anyone know if Twain's "A Story
Without an End" was adabted to another media (movie, TV, cartoon, radio,
etc)?
Thanks in advance!
Jack Grimes
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 12:59:19 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "Marcus W. Koechig" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Help wanted (no pay)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Greetings,
A friend teaches here in Connecticut and has told me of a first-year teacher
in his school who has been handed an advanced-placement class whose task
between now and January is to study, if you are ready,
"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer;"
"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court;"
"Life on the Mississippi;"
"Innocents Abroad;"
"Pudd'nhead Wilson;" and,
"The Mysterious Stranger."
I can find e-texts for just about everything but the latter title. Does
anyone know where I can find this? I do not know which version of MS she is
using but should have that information in the coming week. I have searched
all over the place and cannot locate it. I am amply prepared to receive the
answer that it does not exist so far if that is the case.
I also have made available the address of Jim Zwick's site as well as the
address of this forum. I also have made her aware of the bibliography to be
found in the forum's survival guide. Now that the internet access bases all
have been covered, a couple of questions.
Does anyone have any suggestions for of any of the above works to be studied
in tandem; that is, LM and IA, for example?
Should she see her department head and try to trim this list? The answer
obvious to me is, "Yes," but I don't teach and can only guess.
This past week I spoke to another class there about their reading of TS.
These students were below average but they seemed to be able to grasp the
concepts I presented to them - semi-autobiographical nature of the book,
etc. The teacher involved in this 6-title program may ask me to speak to her
class as well.
This school is in easy reach of Hartford and the Twain House, by the way.
Any help will be appreciated.
Marc
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 13:36:50 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: John Davis <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Chowan College
Subject: Re: Help wanted (no pay)
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Marc,
The text of the 1916 version of -The Mysterious Stranger- (Eseldorf
version) is found in the CD/ ROM, -Twain's World: Mark Twain, His
Work, His Life, His Times-, with the texts of many other works.
Does this information help in your quest?
John H. Davis, Ph.D.
Chowan College
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 14:57:29 +0000
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Duane Campbell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Help wanted (no pay)
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As long as the etext question and Twain's World has come up . . .
I note with regret that many, if not most, of the pieces from Letters From
the Earth are not on the CD-ROM. And I cannot find etext. I was looking
particularly for A Cat-Tale. Any help? Any thoughts on why these works were
excluded from the CD?
Duane Campbell
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Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 14:33:48 -0500
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: Letters from the Earth
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I recently found the etext of _Letters from the Earth_ at:
http://rogue.northwest.com/~crt/twainlte.htm#0
(That is a zero at the end of the htm#). They probably weren't
included on the CD because of copyright still in effect.
Barb
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Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 14:36:41 -0500
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Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Jerry Salley <[log in to unmask]>
Organization: Graham Media Internet
Subject: Re: Help wanted (no pay)
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My best guess is that the CD seems to only contain Twain's works which
would be in the public domain. No fees to pay that way.... I, too,
wish for a CD with _everything_ on it. I've got the 29 volume Oxford
Twain, but would love it on CD.
=========================================================================
Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 20:12:27 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Betsy Gilson <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: About the holidays...
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Am looking for Twain quotations concerning Christmas or the holidays.
Twain seems to be particularly quiet on that subject - though I am aware
that after the death of Susie, Christmas was particlarly low key-- Am aware
of the seasonal shot he took at the telephone ( oh so appropriate even
now--), but haven't found much else. Any suggestions out there? Also
looking for details on Annie Elizabeth Taylor and the Mr. Cunningham she
supposedly married. Thanks.
Betsy Cotton Gilson -
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Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 21:15:07 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Kathy O'Connell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Help wanted (no pay)
Hi---
I think the better linkings are INNOCENTS and YANKEE, TS and LIFE ON THE
MISSISSIP', and PUDD'NHEAD and the MS. Here's my take on why: each is a
different take on (more or less) the same group of ideas. Hope this helps!
Kathy O'Connell
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Date: Sat, 27 Sep 1997 21:59:04 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: About the holidays...
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I'd look thru the volumes of letters and sketches etc. in the months
susurrounding the holidays
and look for any asides or comments Twain wrote to friends and family.
There is on. There is one sketch on
New Years Day he wrote in the mid-1860's, I forget which year.
It's in Vic Doyno's *Writings of an American Skeptic& and
is described in my (*Cradle Skeptic* at the Forum website.
wes britton
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 14:37:43 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Victor Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: About the holidays...
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Dear Betsy Gilson:
Here is Annie Elizabeth Taylor Cunningham's obituary, from the Carrollton
(Mo.) Democrat, 28 January 1916, p. 3 (cited in *Mark Twain's Letters,
Volume 1: 1853-1866* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), p.
62 n. 2:
Death of Mrs. Cunningham
Mrs. Charles Cunningham died at her home on North Jefferson
street, Sunday morning, Jan. 23, at 11 o'clock, of pneumonia, aged 76
years and 14 days.
Annie Elizabeth Taylor was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, January 9,
1840. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins Taylor, who came to
Iowa from Kentucky. Her father was prominent in Iowa, when it was a
territory, also after it became a state. Later he was in Washington as a
newspaper man.
She was educated at Lindenwood College in St. Charles and after
graduating taught school for several years. March 17, 1868, she married
Chas. A. Cunningham, at Highland, Kansas. They came to Carroll county and
lived on a farm near Bogard. In 1869 they came to Carrollton to live; in
1904 they again moved to the country about one mile north of this city;
in 1910 he sold his farm and they moved into their present home on North
Jefferson street.
In her youth Mrs. Cunningham joined the Presbyterian church and
has been in all these years faithful to her Master.
For forty years Mr. Cunningham as been in poor health and for
over twenty years has not been able to take any part in the social life
of the city. Through it all she has been cheerful and in her own home was
a charming conversationalist. Owing to her quiet way of living she has
not made many new friends but her old ones speak of her in the highest
terms. She leaves one sister, Mrs. Mary Jane Martin of New Mexico and her
husband to mourn her death, as well as a large number of friends. Mrs.
Cunninghame has been ill with the griped for several weeks, later
pneumonia followed and death came quickly.
The funeral services were held at the home Monday afternoon at
2:30 o'clock, conducted by Rev. G. L. Bush, assisted by Rev. E. I.
Gilmore. Burial at Oak Hill.
I hope this is of some use. For Christmas comments, see also
*Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 2: 1867-1868,* p. 350; *Volume 3: 1869*, p.
9 n. 2; and *Volume 4: 1870-1871*, p. 521.
Yours sincerely,
Vic Fischer
Mark Twain Project
=========================================================================
Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:49:37 -0500
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: "WILLIAMS, MICHAEL SCOTT" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Kenneth Burns documentary
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Howdy all:
Just read in the school paper here that Kenneth Burns (the one
who brought us the documentaries on baseball and the Civil War) is now in
the process of creating a documentary on none other than Twain. The
small blurb I read stated that it is expected to be about 2-3 hours in
length and will air in the year 2001. Has anyone heard anything else
about this?
Mike Williams
Texas A&M University
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Date: Mon, 29 Sep 1997 21:57:15 -0400
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Kathy O'Connell <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Kenneth Burns documentary
Mike--
It's Ken, not Kenneth, and he's had this planned for at least three years.
I'll happily fax to you and anyone else interested the story that appeared
in
this past Saturday's (Sept. 27) HARTFORD COURANT. The story didn't say much,
other than that Burns would be seeing a lot of Twain house executive
director
John Boyer.
By the way, did you notice the silly omission of SLC from some chart a
British scholar did up that was reprinted in the September HARPER'S? It was
a
study on "Verbal Creativity, Depression and Alcoholism: An Investigation of
One Hundrerd British and American Writers." Our dear Sam is nowhere to be
found. Maybe that should be taken as a thinly-veiled compliment....
=========================================================================
Date: Tue, 30 Sep 1997 12:10:08 -0700
Reply-To: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
From: Victor Fischer <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: About the holidays... (fwd)
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I noticed a couple of typos in my posting yesterday about Annie Elizabeth
Taylor Cunningham, so I am sending it again, corrected. Vic
______________________________________________________________________
Dear Betsy Gilson:
Here is Annie Elizabeth Taylor Cunningham's obituary, from the Carrollton
(Mo.) Democrat, 28 January 1916, p. 3 (cited in *Mark Twain's Letters,
Volume 1: 1853-1866* (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988), p.
62 n. 2:
Death of Mrs. Cunningham
Mrs. Charles Cunningham died at her home on North Jefferson
street, Sunday morning, Jan. 23, at 11 o'clock, of pneumonia, aged 76
years and 14 days.
Annie Elizabeth Taylor was born in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, January 9,
1840. She was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins Taylor, who came to
Iowa from Kentucky. Her father was prominent in Iowa, when it was a
territory, also after it became a state. Later he was in Washington as a
newspaper man.
She was educated at Lindenwood College in St. Charles and after
graduating taught school for several years. March 17, 1868, she married
Chas. A. Cunningham, at Highland, Kansas. They came to Carroll county and
lived on a farm near Bogard. In 1869 they came to Carrollton to live; in
1904 they again moved to the country about one mile north of this city;
in 1910 he sold his farm and they moved into their present home on North
Jefferson street.
In her youth Mrs. Cunningham joined the Presbyterian church and
has been in all these years faithful to her Master.
For forty years Mrs. Cunningham has been in poor health and for
over twenty years has not been able to take any part in the social life
of the city. Through it all she has been cheerful and in her own home was
a charming conversationalist. Owing to her quiet way of living she has
not made many new friends but her old ones speak of her in the highest
terms. She leaves one sister, Mrs. Mary Jane Martin of New Mexico and her
husband to mourn her death, as well as a large number of friends. Mrs.
Cunningham has been ill with the grippe for several weeks, later
pneumonia followed and death came quickly.
The funeral services were held at the home Monday afternoon at
2:30 o'clock, conducted by Rev. G. L. Bush, assisted by Rev. E. I.
Gilmore. Burial at Oak Hill.
I hope this is of some use. For Christmas comments, see also
*Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 2: 1867-1868,* p. 350; *Volume 3: 1869*, p.
9 n. 2; and *Volume 4: 1870-1871*, p. 521.
Yours sincerely,
Vic Fischer
Mark Twain Project