Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals, Volume II

Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals, Volume II
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 718
Release: 2023-12-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0520905539

The twelve notebooks in volume 1 provided information about the eighteen years in which the most profound, even dramatic, changes took place in Clemens' life. He early achieved the limits of his boyhood ambition by becoming a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River, a position there is no reason to believe he would have abandoned if the Civil War had not forced him to do so. In fleeing from a war which principle and temperament prevented him from supporting, Clemens entered into the first stages of his literary career by serving as a reporter for newspapers in Virginia City and San Francisco. When the restricted experiences available to a local reporter had been thoroughly explored, he moved on as a traveling correspondent to the Sandwich Islands and then still farther to Europe and the Near East. The latter travels provided him with material for The Innocents Abroad, the book that established Mark Twain as a popular author with an international reputation in 1869. In 1872 he further exploited his personal history by publishing Roughing It and in the same year visited England to gather material on English people and institutions. He returned to England the following year, this time accompanied by his family and by a secretary who would record the observations printed as the last notebook in volume 1. Volume 2 of Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals, documenting Clemens' activities in the years from 1877 to 1883, consists largely of the record of three trips which would serve as the source for three travel narratives: the excursion to Bermuda, a prolonged tour of Europe, and an evocative return to the Mississippi River. Despite the common impulse to preserve observations and impressions for literary use, the contents of the notebooks are remarkably different in their vitality-and the works which developed from the notes are correspondingly varied.

A Companion to Mark Twain

A Companion to Mark Twain
Author: Peter Messent
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 597
Release: 2015-08-17
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1119045398

This broad-ranging companion brings together respected American and European critics and a number of up-and-coming scholars to provide an overview of Twain, his background, his writings, and his place in American literary history. One of the most broad-ranging volumes to appear on Mark Twain in recent years Brings together respected Twain critics and a number of younger scholars in the field to provide an overview of this central figure in American literature Places special emphasis on the ways in which Twain's works remain both relevant and important for a twenty-first century audience A concluding essay evaluates the changing landscape of Twain criticism

Potsdam, NY

Potsdam, NY
Author: Potsdam Public Museum (Potsdam, N.Y.)
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 1014
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780738536507

Red sandstone, lumber, paper, cows, and college students feature prominently in Potsdam. With its selection of two hundred stunning photographs, the book records aspects of life in Potsdam from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. Located on the Racquette River between the St. Lawrence River and the Adirondack Mountains, the town is one often that were created in 1787 to promote settlement of New York State. Education has played an important role in Potsdam since 1816, when St. Lawrence Academy opened. The success of the academy led to the establishment in 1866 of a normal school, the forerunner of Potsdam College, with its renowned Crane School of Music.

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer among the Indians
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 394
Release: 2011-07-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0520950607

o Includes the authoritative texts for eleven pieces written between 1868 and 1902 o Publishes, for the first time, the complete text of "Villagers of 1840-3," Mark Twain's astounding feat of memory o Features a biographical directory and notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in Missouri Throughout his career, Mark Twain frequently turned for inspiration to memories of his youth in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri. What has come to be known as the Matter of Hannibal inspired two of his most famous books, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and provided the basis for the eleven pieces reprinted here. Most of these selections (eight of them fiction and three of them autobiographical) were never completed, and all were left unpublished. Written between 1868 and 1902, they include a diverse assortment of adventures, satires, and reminiscences in which the characters of his own childhood and of his best-loved fiction, particularly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, come alive again. The autobiographical recollections culminate in an astounding feat of memory titled "Villagers of 1840-3" in which the author, writing for himself alone at the age of sixty-one, recalls with humor and pathos the characters of some one hundred and fifty people from his childhood. Accompanied by notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in Missouri, the selections in this volume offer a revealing view of Mark Twain's varied and repeated attempts to give literary expression to the Matter of Hannibal.

Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 5

Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 5
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 976
Release: 2023-11-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0520918843

"Livy darling, it was flattering, at the Lord Mayor's dinner, tonight, to have the nation's honored favorite, the Lord High Chancellor of England, in his vast wig & gown, with a splendid, sword-bearing lackey, following him & holding up his train, walk me arm-in-arm through the brilliant assemblage, & welcome me with all the enthusiasm of a girl, & tell me that when affairs of state oppress him & he can't sleep, he always has my books at hand & forgets his perplexities in reading them!" (10 November 1872) On his first trip to England to gather material for a book and cement relations with his newly authorized English publishers, Samuel Clemens was astounded to find himself hailed everywhere as a literary lion. America's premier humorist had begun his long tenure as an international celebrity. Meanwhile, he was coming into his full power at home. The Innocents Abroad continued to produce impressive royalties and his new book, Roughing It, was enjoying great popularity. In newspaper columns he appeared regularly as public advocate and conscience, speaking on issues as disparate as safety at sea and political corruption. Clemens's personal life at this time was for the most part fulfilling, although saddened by the loss of his nineteen-month-old son, Langdon, who died of diphtheria. Life in the Nook Farm community of writers and progressive thinkers and activists was proving to be all the Clemenses had hoped for. The 309 letters in this volume, more than half of them never before published, capture the events of these years with detailed intimacy. Thoroughly annotated and indexed, they are supplemented by genealogical charts of the Clemens and Langdon families, a transcription of the journals Clemens kept during his 1872 visit to England, book contracts, his preface to the English edition of The Gilded Age, contemporary photographs of family and friends, and a gathering of all newly discovered letters written between 1865 and 1871. This volume is the fifth in the only complete edition of Mark Twain's letters ever attempted, and the twenty-fourth in the comprehensive edition known as The Mark Twain Papers and Works of Mark Twain.

Chasing the Last Laugh

Chasing the Last Laugh
Author: Richard Zacks
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2017-02-21
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0345802535

In the 1890s, Mark Twain came back from the dead. The famous author’s career was collapsing, his masterpieces were at risk of falling into oblivion, and he was even mistakenly reported dead. But Twain orchestrated an amazing late-in-life comeback from bankruptcy, bad reviews, and family disaster by setting out on an unprecedented international comedy tour to restore his fortunes. Richard Zacks’s Chasing the Last Laugh captures some of Twain’s cleverest and funniest moments—many newly discovered in unpublished notebooks and letters—as he rode elephants in India, sorted diamonds in South Africa, and talked his way out of hell ninety minutes at a time. This untold chapter in the author’s life began with ridiculously bad choices and ended in hard-won triumph.

The Realist Tradition and Contemporary International Relations

The Realist Tradition and Contemporary International Relations
Author: W. David Clinton
Publisher: LSU Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 2007-07
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0807149225

The tradition in international relations theory known as realism has often been associated with the Cold War. The contributors to this intriguing volume argue, however, that realism remains a profound and relevant perspective on contemporary international politics. They point out that classical realism is based on concepts that were elucidated long before the Cold War began and are not confined by its boundaries. Further, they believe that insights of the realist tradition can provide valuable guidance in our contemporary world. W. David Clinton and ten scholars of foreign policy reexamine the work of thinkers spanning twenty-five centuries who have contributed to the development of realism across the ages. In their essays, the authors consider two key questions: What makes these thinkers "realists"? And how is their work relevant to the modern, post--Cold War world? These essays take a fresh look at such canonical thinkers as Thucydides, Augustine, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Hume, Burke, Carr, Niebuhr, and Morgenthau. Countering the widespread belief that realism has nothing left to offer, this collection demonstrates that continuities remain in the political world -- and that the ideas rooted in realism are too important and too useful to ignore. While there are obvious differences among the political philosophers whose works are considered here, they share a common concern about human limitations and the possible dangerous consequences of ignoring those limitations. Each in his own way, these classic thinkers discuss the need for prudence to counter the ever-present threat of tragedy resulting from our innocent, hopeful, or self-righteous efforts for perfection. These provocative essays demonstrate that though a realist understanding of the nature of international relations is at least as old as Thucydides, it is also as contemporaneous as the most recent headline.

Mark Twain’s Book of Animals

Mark Twain’s Book of Animals
Author: Mark Twain
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2011-07
Genre: Humor
ISBN: 0520271521

"For those unaware—as I was until I read this book—that Mark Twain was one of America's early animal advocates, Shelley Fisher Fishkin's collection of his writings on animals will come as a revelation. Many of these pieces are as fresh and lively as when they were first written, and it's wonderful to have them gathered in one place." —Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation and The Life You Can Save “A truly exhilarating work. Mark Twain's animal-friendly views would not be out of place today, and indeed, in certain respects, Twain is still ahead of us: claiming, correctly, that there are certain degraded practices that only humans inflict on one another and upon other animals. Fishkin has done a splendid job: I cannot remember reading something so consistently excellent."—Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep and The Face on Your Plate "Shelley Fisher Fishkin has given us the lifelong arc of the great man's antic, hilarious, and subtly profound explorations of the animal world, and she's guided us through it with her own trademark wit and acumen. Dogged if she hasn't." —Ron Powers, author of Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain and Mark Twain: A Life