About the texts in this volume -- Abbreviations used in this volume -- Offensive language in Pudd'nhead Wilson -- Pudd'nhead Wilson : a tale : the Morgan Manuscript version -- Pudd'nhead Wilson : a tale : the revised version -- Those extraordinary twins : a postscript to Pudd'nhead Wilson -- Explanatory notes -- Appendix A : MS Berg : contents and numbering -- Appendix B : MS Morgan : contents and numbering -- Appendix C : Mark Twain's working notes -- Appendix D : Pudd'nhead Wilson's calendar for 1894 -- Appendix E : Contract with the American Publishing Company -- Appendix F : American Publishing Company advertising flyer -- Appendix G : Illustrating Pudd'nhead Wilson -- Appendix H : ["The Man with Negro Blood"] -- Introduction -- Textual apparatus -- Note on texts -- Guide to the textual apparatus -- Description of source documents -- Emendations and historical collections -- Word division in this volume.
Summary:
"Mark Twain's story of the antebellum South, first published in 1894, continues to prompt conversations about race and the dire legacy of American slavery. At its heart is Roxy, a mixed-race woman enslaved to a wealthy Missouri family. To save her infant son (whose father was white) from being 'sold down the river,' Roxy switches him in the cradle with her master's own son, setting in motion a train of ironic and bitter events. With its mixture of farce, social commentary, tragedy, and satire, Pudd'nhead Wilson has come to be one of Mark Twain's most read and most studied works. But few have read the original Pudd'nhead Wilson. The text familiar since 1894, as editor Benjamin Griffin shows, was heavily edited and censored--first by the author himself under pressure from family and friends, and then by his publishers. Now the Mark Twain Project makes available the full text of the Morgan Library manuscript (the original version), together with a critical text of the revised version, stripped of the changes imposed by Mark Twain's editors and publishers--two fascinating ways to encounter this troubled and troubling novel"--Provided by publisher.
Series:
The works of Mark Twain ; volume 10 Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. Works. 1972 ; v. 10.
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.