Mark Twain S Audience

Mark Twain has been one of the most popular American writers since 1868. This book shifts the focus of Twain studies from the writer to the reader. This study of Twain’s readership and lecture audiences makes use of statistics, literary biography, twentieth-century newspapers, memoirs, diaries, travel journals, letters, literature, interviews, and reading circle reports. The book allows the audience of Mark Twain to speak for themselves in defining their relationship to his work. Twain collected letters from his readers but there are also many other sources of which critics should be aware. The voices of these readers present their views, their likes—and sometimes dislikes, their emotional reactions and identification, and their deep attachment and love for Twain’s characters, stories, themes, and sensibilities. Bringing together contemporary reactions to Twain and his works and those of later audiences, this book paints a portrait of the American people and of American society and culture. While the book is about Mark Twain, or Samuel Clemens, it presents a larger cultural study of twentieth-century America and the early years of the twentieth century. The book includes Twain’s international audience but makes its majorly scholarly contribution in the analysis of Twain’s audience in America. It analyzes the people and their values, their reading habits and cultural views, their everyday experiences in the face of the drastic changes of the emerging nation coping with cataclysmic events, such as the Industrial Revolution and the consequences of the Civil War. This book serves as a model for using the audience of a prominent writer to analyze American history, American culture, and the American psyche. This book examines a historical time and an emerging national consciousness that defined the American identity after the Civil War.

Who was Mark Twain? Was he the genial author of two beloved boys books, the white-haired and white-suited avuncular humorist, the realistic novelist, the exposer of shams, the author repressed by bourgeois values, or the social satirist whose later writings embody an increasingly dark view? In light of those and other conceptions, the question we need to ask is not who he was but how did we get so many Mark Twains? The Mercurial Mark Twains(s): Reception History and Iconic Authorship provides answers to that question by examining the way Twain, his texts, and his image have been constructed by his audiences. Drawing on archival records of responses from common readers, reviewer reactions, analyses by Twain scholars and critics, and film and television adaptations, this study provides the first wide-ranging, fine-grained historical analysis of Twain’s reception in both the public and private spheres, from the 1860s until the end of the twentieth century.

No One Says it Like Mark Twain “Whenever you find that you are on the side of majority, it is time to reform.” - Mark Twain Mark Twain's Speeches have delighted audiences for over one hundred years. Filled with wit and wry observation, these speeches are enjoyable to read and excellent examples of the way to entertain and persuade a crowd. This Xist Classics edition has been professionally formatted for e-readers with a linked table of contents. This eBook also contains a bonus book club leadership guide and discussion questions. We hope you’ll share this book with your friends, neighbors and colleagues and can’t wait to hear what you have to say about it. Xist Publishing is a digital-first publisher. Xist Publishing creates books for the touchscreen generation and is dedicated to helping everyone develop a lifetime love of reading, no matter what form it takes.

This volume in The Best from American Literature series presents articles and profiles the evolution of literary opinion and the shifts of critical emphasis. Beginning with an analysis of science in the thought of Mark Twain, the volume examines his indebtedness to literary comedians, such as George Horatio Derby, better known as John Phoenix; his contributions to the traditions of Southwestern humor; and how he employed images of endangered families. Other topics include: Twain as translator from the German; the composition and structure of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; the style of Huckleberry Finn; his first and only novel about a young girl, Joan of Arc; the four roles into which he cast Satan; the probable meaning of A Connecticut Yankee; and a thematic analysis of Pudd'nhead Wilson. ISBN 0-8223-0759-6: $33.50.

Selected from Mark Twain's typescript.

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Complete Speeches of Mark Twain" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. In addition to being a great novelist, Mark Twain was one of the most popular public speakers of his day. This collection brings together in a single volume the complete collected speeches of Mark Twain which was first published in 1871. Table of Contents: The Story Of A Speech; Plymouth Rock And The Pilgrims; Compliments And Degrees; Books, Authors, And Hats; Dedication Speech; Die Schrecken Der Deutschen Sprache [The Horrors Of The German Language]; German For The Hungarians; A New German Word; Unconscious Plagiarism; The Weather; The Babies; Our Children And Great Discoveries; Educating Theatre-Goers; The Educational Theatre; Poets As Policemen; Pudd'nhead Wilson Dramatized; Daly Theatre; The Dress Of Civilized Woman; Dress Reform And Copyright; College Girls; Girls; The Ladies; Woman's Press Club; Votes For Women; Woman-An Opinion; Advice To Girls; Taxes And Morals; Tammany And Croker; Municipal Corruption; Municipal Government; China And The Philippines; Theoretical Morals; Layman's Sermon; University Settlement Society; Public Education Association; Education And Citizenship; Courage; The Dinner To Mr. Choate; On Stanley And Livingstone; Henry M. Stanley; Dinner To Mr. Jerome; Henry Irving; Dinner To Hamilton W. Mabie; Introducing Nye And Riley; Dinner To Whitelaw Reid; Rogers And Railroads; The Old-Fashioned Printer; Society Of American Authors; Reading-Room Opening; Literature; Disappearance Of Literature; The New York Press Club Dinner; The Alphabet And Simplified Spelling; Spelling And Pictures; Books And Burglars; Authors' Club; Booksellers; "Mark Twain's First Appearance"; Morals And Memory; Queen Victoria; Joan Of Arc; Accident Insurance — Etc.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Mark Twain" by Archibald Henderson. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Originally published in 1976 and reissued in 2006 after many years out of print, Mark Twain Speaking assembles Twain's lectures, after-dinner speeches, and interviews from 1864 to 1909. Explanatory notes describe occasions, identify personalities, and discuss techniques of Twain's oral craftsmanship. A chronology listing date, place, and title of speech or type of engagement completes the collection.