Hill, Hamlin,
Mark Twain: God's Fool
(New York, 1973)
Kaplan, Fred,
The Singular Mark Twain: A Biography
(New York, 2003)
Kaplan, Justin,
Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, a Biography
(New York, 1966)
Meltzer, Milton,
Mark Twain Himself: A Pictorial Biography
(Columbia, Mo., 2002)
Paine, Albert Bigelow,
Mark Twain: A Biography,
3 vols. (New York, 1912)
Powers, Ron,
Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain
(New York, 1999)
Skandera-Trombley, Laura,
Mark Twain in the Company of Women
(Philadelphia, 1994)
Steinbrink, Jeffrey,
Getting to Be Mark Twain
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1991)
Ward, Geoffrey C., and Dayton Duncan, with a preface by Ken Burns,
Mark Twain
(New York, 2001)
Wecter, Dixon,
Sam Clemens of Hannibal
(Boston, 1952)
CRITICISM
Bellamy, Gladys,
Mark Twain as a Literary Artist
(Norman, Okla., 1950)
Branch, Edgard M.,
The Literary Apprenticeship of Mark Twain
(Urbana, Ill., 1950)
Bridgman, Richard,
Traveling in Mark Twain
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1987)
Budd, Louis J.,
Mark Twain: Social Philosopher,
rev. ed. (Columbia, Mo., 2001)
âââ,
Our Mark Twain: The Making of His Public Personality
(Philadelphia, 1983)
Covici, Pascal, Jr.,
Mark Twain's Humor: The Image of a World
(Dallas, Tex., 1962)
Cox, James M.,
Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor
(Columbia, Mo., 2002)
DeVoto, Bernard,
Mark Twain's America
(Boston, 1932)
Gerber, John,
Mark Twain
(New York, 1988)
Gibson, William M.,
The Art of Mark Twain
(New York, 1976)
Gillman, Susan,
Dark Twins: Imposture and Identity in Mark Twain's America
(Chicago, 1980)
Howells, William Dean,
My Mark Twain
(New York, 1910)
Krauth, Leland,
Proper Mark Twain
(Athens, Ga., 1999)
Lynn, Kenneth S.,
Mark Twain and Southwestern Humor
(Boston, 1970)
Melton, Jeffrey Alan,
Mark Twain, Travel Books, and Tourism: The Tide of a Great Popular Movement
(Tuscaloosa, Ala., 2002)
Messent, Peter,
Mark Twain
(New York, 1997)
Michelson, Bruce,
Mark Twain on the Loose: A Comic Writer and the American Self
(Amherst, Mass., 1955)
Quirk, Tom,
Mark Twain: A Study of the Short Fiction
(New York, 1997)
Rogers, Franklin R.,
Mark Twain's Burlesque Patterns as Seen in the Novels and Narratives, 1855-1885,
(Dallas, Tex., 1955)
Sloane, David E. E.,
Mark Twain as a Literary Comedian
(Baton Rouge, La., 1979)
Smith, Henry Nash,
Mark Twain: The Development of a Writer
(Cambridge, Mass., 1962)
CRITICISM ON
ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Arac, Jonathan,
Huckleberry Finn as Idol and Target: The Functions of Criticism in Our Time
(Madison, Wis., 1997)
Blair, Walter,
Mark Twain and Huck Finn
(Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1960)
Chadwick-Joshua, Jocelyn,
The Jim Dilemma: Reading Race in
Huckleberry Finn (Jackson, Miss., 1998)
Doyno, Victor A.,
Writing “Huck Finn”: Mark Twain's Creative Process
(Philadelphia, 1992)
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher,
Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African-American Voices
(New York, 1993)
Inge, M. Thomas,
Huck Finn among the Critics: A Centennial Selection
(Frederick, Md., 1985)
Mensh, Elaine, and Harry Mensh,
Black, White, and Huckleberry Finn: Re-Imagining the American Dream
(Tuscaloosa, Ala., 2000)
Quirk, Tom,
Coming to Grips with Huckleberry Finn
(Columbia, Mo., 1993)
Sattelmeyer, Robert, and J. Donald Crowley, eds.,
One Hundred Years of “Huckleberry Finn”
(Columbia, Mo., 1985)
Twain, Mark,
The Annotated Huckleberry Finn,
edited by Michael Patrick Hearn (New York, 2001)
Wieck, Carl,
Refiguring Huckleberry Finn
(Athens, Ga., 2000)
Note on Texts
In some instances, I have supplied titles for excerpted pieces because the chapter title or running head was not especially descriptive of the text at hand. Whenever possible, the texts used are taken from the first American book publication of the text in question.
The text for “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is taken from
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches
(New York: C. H. Webb Publisher, 1867). “How I Edited an Agricultural Journal Once” was first published in the
Galaxy
for July, 1870, the source for the text printed here. “An Encounter with an Interviewer” first appeared in the volume
Lotus Leaves,
edited by John Brougham and John Elderkin (Boston: William F. Gill and Co., 1875), the source for the text printed here. “A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It” first appeared in
Atlantic Monthly
for November, 1874, the source of the text printed here.
The texts for the following selections were derived from the first American edition published by The American Publishing Company of Hartford, Connecticut: “The Sea of Galilee” and “At the Tomb of Adam” are from
The Innocents Abroad
(1869). The texts for “The Story of the Old Ram,” “Buck Fanshaw's Funeral,” and “Letters from Greeley” are from
Roughing It
(1872). The text for “Colonel Sellers Entertains Washington Hawkins” is from
The Gilded Age
(1873) which was jointly written with Charles Dudley Warner. The texts for “Jim Baker's Blue-Jay Yarn” and “The Hair Trunk” are taken from
A Tramp Abroad
(1880). The text for “Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar” is from
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins
(1894). The texts for “Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar” and “Decimating the Savages” are from the first American edition of
Following the Equator
(1897).
“A Boy's Ambition,” “Perplexing Lessons,” and “Continued Perplexities” first appeared in “Old Times on the Mississippi,” serialized in the
Atlantic Monthly
from January to August, 1875; they were later included as Chapters 4, 8, and 9 of
Life on the Mississippi.
The texts for these selections, along with “The River and Its History,” “Sunrise on the River,” and “The House Beautiful,” are taken from the first American edition of
Life on the Mississippi
(Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, 1883).
The text for
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
with one notable exception, derives from the first American edition of the novel (New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885). Following the example of Bernard DeVoto's
Portable Mark Twain,
the “raftsmen episode,” first published in Chapter 3 of
Life on the Mississippi,
but originally intended as part of the novel, has been restored as part of Chapter 16 of
Huckleberry Finn.
“The Private History of a Campaign That Failed” was first published in the
Century Magazine,
December, 1885 and is the source for this text. The texts for “The Yankee in Search of Adventure” and “The Holy Fountain” are from the first American edition of
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
(New York: Charles L. Webster & Company, 1889).
Mark Twain wrote “Extracts from Adam's Diary” in 1892 and asked his business manager, Fred Hall, to place it in either
Cosmopolitan
or
Century
magazine. Hall was unsuccessful in placing the manuscript, but Iriving S. Underhill, wishing to promote Niagara Falls as a tourist attraction, asked Twain for a contribution for
The Niagara Book.
Twain revised “Adam's Diary,” making Niagara Falls Park the scene for the work, instead of the Garden of Eden. The text printed here is from
The Niagara Book. A Complete Souvenir of Niagara Falls Containing Sketches . . . by W. D. Howells, Mark Twain . . . and Others
(Buffalo: Underhill & Nichols, 1893).
“To the Person Sitting in Darkness” was published in the
North American Review,
February, 1901, and is the source for this text. “Corn-Pone Opinions” was written in 1901 but was first published in
Europe and Elsewhere,
Albert Bigelow Paine, ed. (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1923), the source of the present text. A chapter from Twain's ongoing “Autobiography,” “Early Days” was published in the
North American Review,
March, 1907, and is the source for this text.
The texts for “Plymouth Rock and the Pilgrims,” “Education and Citizenship,” and “The Alphabet and Simplified Spelling” are from the first American edition of
Mark Twain's Speeches
(New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1910). “Advice to Youth” and “Farewell Banquet for Bayard Taylor” are from
Mark Twain Speaking,
Paul Fatout, ed. (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1976).
The letter to Frank Nichols (3/1885) was published in the Boston
Daily Advertiser
on April 2, 1885. The letter to Susan Crane (3/19/1893) is reprinted with permission from the Hartford House, Hartford, Connecticut. The remaining letters are from the two-volume
Mark Twain's Letters,
arranged with comment by Albert Bigelow Paine (New York: Harper and Brothers Publishers, 1917).
Chronology
1835
Samuel L. Clemens is born in Florida, Missouri.
1839
The Clemens family moves to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River.
1847
His father, John Marshall Clemens, dies March 24.
1849-1851
Apprentices with Joseph Ament, printer; sets type for the Hannibal
Courier.
1853
Leaves Hannibal for St. Louis; spends August in New York City; visits Philadelphia.
1857
Meets Horace Bixby, the riverboat pilot, who agrees to take him as an apprentice.
1858-1859
Apprentices as a “cub” pilot; receives his license April 9, 1859.
1861
In June, joins the Marion Rangers, a group of volunteers sympathetic to the Confederate cause. The unit disbands after two weeks.
In July, travels with his brother Orion to the Nevada Territory.
1862
Joins staff of the Virginia City, Nevada,
Territorial Enterprise.
1863
In three “Letters from Carson,” he first uses the pen name “Mark Twain.”
1864
Moves to San Francisco and works as a reporter for the
Morning Call.
Publishes sketches in the
Golden Era
and the
Californian.
1865
“Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” is published in the New York
Saturday Press
and is widely reprinted throughout the country.
1867
In June, sails on the
Quaker City
for Europe and the Holy Land as a correspondent for the
Alta California
and the New York
Tribune.
Contracts with the American Publishing Company to make letters from voyage into a book.
Meets Olivia Langdon.
1869
Becomes engaged to Olivia Langdon.
The Innocents Abroad
is published.
1870
Marries February 2; moves to Buffalo, New York.
Son Langdon is born; dies 18 months later.
1872
Roughing It
is published.
Daughter Olivia Susan (Susy) is born.
1873
The Gilded Age
(coauthored with Charles Dudley Warner) is published.
1874
Daughter Clara is born.
The Clemenses move into their still uncompleted house in Hartford, Connecticut, in the fall.
In November, publishes “A True Story” in the
Atlantic Monthly,
Twain's first attempt to tell a serious story in African-American dialect.
Begins writing articles about his years as a Mississippi riverboat apprentice.
1875
In January, the first installment of “Old Times on the Mississippi” appears in the
Atlantic Monthly.
In September,
Mark Twain's Sketches New and Old
is published.
1876
In the summer begins writing “Huck Finn's Autobiography” at Quarry Farm, overlooking Elmira, New York.
Publishes
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
1877
In December, delivers the “Whittier Birthday Speech” in Boston. Many, including Clemens's friend William Dean Howells, are shocked by the burlesque that features tramps impersonating Longfellow, Holmes, and Emerson.
1878
In April, the Clemens family travels to Germany and makes excursions throughout Switzerland and Italy. They return home September, 1879.
1880
In March,
A Tramp Abroad
is published.
Daughter Jane Lampton (Jean) is born.
1881
In December,
The Prince and the Pauper
is published.
1882
In preparation of expanding the “Old Times on the Mississippi” articles into a book, travels to St. Louis and takes a riverboat down to New Orleans and then back north, stopping off at his hometown, Hannibal.
1883
In May,
Life on the Mississippi
is published.
1884
In May, he and Charles L. Webster start their own publishing company.
In July, begins writing “Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians.”