A fresh start on an immense subject -- Adding bookshelves to Mark Twain's library -- William Dean Howells's "Most unliterary" author: Mark Twain -- Friends like these: lavishing faint praise on Mark Twain -- Samuel L. Clemens's earliest literary experiences -- Samuel L. Clemens's eclectic reading: Clemens's favorite books -- Reading Mark Twain reading -- The formation of Samuel L. Clemens's library -- The dispersal of Samuel L. Clemens's library books -- "Good books & a sleepy conscience": Mark Twain's reading habits -- "I kind of love small game": Mark Twain's library of literary hogwash -- Susy Clemens's Shakespeare -- "It is unsatisfactory to read to one's self": Mark Twain's informal readings -- "A splendor of stars & suns": Mark Twain as a reader of Browning's poems -- How Tom Sawyer played Robin Hood "by the book" -- Mark Twain, phrenology, and the "temperaments": a study of pseudoscientific influence -- Tom Sawyer, Tom Canty, and Huckleberry Finn: the boy book and Mark Twain -- Manipulating a genre: Huckleberry Finn as boy book -- If I'd a knowed what a trouble it was to quote a book: literary knowledge in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- Mark Twain reads Longstreet's Georgia scenes -- "That pair of spiritual derelicts": the Poe-Twain relationship -- Those other thematic patterns in Mark Twain's writings -- "The master hand of old Malory": Mark Twain's acquaintance with Le Morte D'Arthur -- Anatole France and Mark Twain's Satan -- "I detest novels, poetry & theology": origin of a fiction concerning Mark Twain's reading -- "Stolen from books, tho" credit given": Mark Twain's use of literary sources -- Critical bibliography: books and articles related to Samuel L. Clemens's reading.
Summary:
"This first installment of Alan Gribben's new multi-volume Mark Twain's Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading recounts Dr. Gribben's forty-five-year search for surviving volumes from the library assembled by Twain and his family members. Their collection of more than 3,000 titles was dispersed through donations and abrupt public auctions, but nearly a thousand of the books have been recovered. Dr. Gribben also adds many hundreds of other books, stories, essays, poems, songs, plays, operas, newspapers, and magazines with which Twain was demonstrably familiar. Volume One traces Twain's extensive use of public libraries. It also identifies Twain's favorite works, but shows that he had strong dislikes, too. Chapter 10 is devoted to his 'Library of Literary Hogwash'--specimens of atrocious poetry and prose that he delighted in ridiculing. In describing Twain's habit of annotating book margins, Dr. Gribben reveals his methods of detecting forged autographs and marginal notes that have fooled booksellers, collectors, and libraries. A total of twenty-five chapters study the patterns of his reading from various perspectives. A Critical Bibliography evaluates the numerous scholarly books and articles that have studied Twain's reading."-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.