1st Edition

Mark Twain's Humor Critical Essays

Edited By David E. E. Sloane Copyright 1993
    662 Pages
    by Routledge

    662 Pages
    by Routledge

    Originally published in 1993. The purpose of this volume is to lay out documents which give an estimate of Mark Twain as a humourist in both historical scope and in the analysis of modern scholars. The emphasis in this collection is on how Twain developed from a contemporary humourist among many others of his generation into a major comic writer and American spokesman and, in several more recent essays by younger Twain scholars, the outcomes of that development late in his career. The essays determine how the humor takes on meaning and importance and how the humor works in a number of ways in the literary canon and even in the persona of Mark Twain.

    General Editor’s Note;  Acknowledgements;  Chronology;  Introduction David E. E. Sloane;  Part One: The Early Writings of Mark Twain: The Growth of the Comedian;  1. "My Voice is Still for Setchell’: A Background Study of ‘Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog’ Edgar M. Branch  2. Burlesque Travel Literature and Mark Twain’s Roughing It Franklin R. Rogers  3. From the Old Southwest Pascal Covici, Jr.  4. A Curious Republican Louis J. Budd  5. Toward the Novel David E. E. SloanePart Two: The Middle Career of Mark Twain from Tom Sawyer to Pudd’nhead Wilson: The Comedian as Major Author;  6. Novels of the Week: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Athenaeum  7. On the Structure of Tom Sawyer Walter Blair  8. Mark Twain William Dean Howells  9. Trowbridge and Clemens Rufus A. Coleman  10. Musings without Method Blackwood’s Magazine  11. Mark Twain and the Old Time Subscription Book George Ade  12. Mark Twain on the Lecture Platform Will M. Clemens  13. Life Reviews Huckleberry Finn Durant Da Ponte  14. Huckleberry Finn: The Book We Love to Hate Leslie A. Fielder  15. A Sound Heart and a Deformed Conscience Henry Nash Smith  16. A Connecticut Yankee Anticipated: Max Adeler’s Fortunate Island Edward F. Foster  17. Yankee Slang James M. Cox  18. ‘I Kind of Love Small Game’: Mark Twain’s Library of Literary Hogwash Alan Gribben  19. The American Claimant: Reclamation of a Farce Clyde Grimm  20. Mark Twain – An Intimate Memory Henry Watterson  21. The Book Hunter [Review of Pudd’nhead Wilson] The Idler  22. In Re ‘Pudd’nhead Wilson’ Martha McCulloch Williams  23. ‘The Tales He Couldn’t Tell’: Mark Twain, Race and Culture at the Century’s End: A Social Context for Pudd’nhead Wilson Selley Fisher FishkinPart Three: The Later Career of Mark Twain: The Comedian as a Cultural Representative  24. Mark Twain: An Inquiry William Dean Howells  25. The International Fame of Mark Twain Archibald Henderson  26. An Inspired Critic Edith Wyatt  27. The Anecdotal Side of Mark Twain The Ladies’ Home Journal  28. 3.-Mark Twain A. C. Ward  29. Review of Tom Sawyer Abroad The Academy  30. ‘Hadleyburg’: Mark Twain’s Dual Attack on Banal Theology and Banal Literature Susan K. Harris  31. Is the Philippine Policy of the Administration Just? John Kendrick Bangs and Mark Twain  32. Reconstructing the ‘Imagination Mill’: The Mystery of Mark Twain’s Late Works Susanne Weil  33. Coming Back to Humor: The Comic Voice in Mark Twain’s Autobiography Michael J. Kiskis  34. ‘The Mysterious Stranger’: Absence of the Female in Mark Twain Biography Laura E. Skandera-Trombley;  Selected Bibliography;  Index

    Biography

    David E. E. Sloane