Reception and Criticism (1960 to Present)

doi:10.1017/9781108617208.032

Chapter 30 - Reception and Criticism (1960 to Present)

from Part IV - Reception and Criticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2019

Joseph Csicsila

Edited by

John Bird

Show author details

John Bird: Affiliation:
Winthrop University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

The 1960s saw several seminal works of Twain criticism, including Henry Nash Smith’s Mark Twain: The Development of a Writer, Walter Blair’s study of Huckleberry Finn, and James M. Cox’s Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor. The publication in 1962 of Letters from the Earth and other late writings that had been suppressed by Twain’s daughter Clara brought a complete reappraisal of the author. Justin Kaplan’s 1967 biography, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, was influenced by the split Van Wyck Brooks had earlier argued for, and other biographies have followed, a dozen or more since that time. All of Twain’s major works have received book-length treatment, and thousands of critical articles have been published, most notably on Huckleberry Finn, with his work being treated by all the major theoretical movements of the last half-century. The Mark Twain critical industry continues to thrive.

Keywords

Mark Twain Samuel Clemens reception criticism

Information

Type: Chapter
Information: Mark Twain in Context , pp. 305 - 316

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108617208.032 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Works Cited

Baetzhold, Howard G. Mark Twain and John Bull: The British Connection. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1970.Google Scholar

Berkove, Lawrence, and Csicsila, Joseph. Heretical Fictions: Religion in the Literature of Mark Twain. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2010.Google Scholar

Beidler, Phillip. Rafts and Other Rivercraft in Huckleberry Finn. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2018.Google Scholar

Bird, John. Mark Twain and Metaphor. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007.Google Scholar

Blair, Walter. Mark Twain & Huck Finn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960.Google Scholar

Budd, Louis J. Mark Twain: Social Philosopher. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1962.Google Scholar

Budd, Louis J.Our Mark Twain: The Making of His Public Personality. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1982.Google Scholar

Bush, Harold K. Mark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of His Age. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2007.Google Scholar

Camfield, Gregg, ed. The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.Google Scholar

Camfield, GreggSentimental Twain: Samuel Clemens in the Maze of Moral Philosophy. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.Google Scholar

Caron, James E. Mark Twain, Unsanctified Newspaper Reporter: Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008.Google Scholar

Cooley, John. Mark Twain’s Aquarium: The Samuel Clemens-Angelfish Correspondence, 1905–1910. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1991.Google Scholar

Covici, Pascal. Mark Twain’s Humor: The Image of a World. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1962.Google Scholar

Cox, James M. Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1966.Google Scholar

Csicsila, Joseph, and Rohman, Chad, eds. Centenary Reflections on Mark Twain’s No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2009.Google Scholar

Cummings, Sherwood. Mark Twain and Science: The Adventures of a Mind. Baton Rouge: University of Louisiana Press, 1988.Google Scholar

Dempsey, Terrell. Searching for Jim: Slavery in Sam Clemens’s World. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003.Google Scholar

Dolemetsch, Carl. “Our Famous Guest”: Mark Twain in Vienna. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1992.Google Scholar

Doyno, Victor A. Writing “Huck Finn”: Mark Twain’s Creative Process. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991.Google Scholar

Driscoll, Kerry. Mark Twain among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples. Oakland: University of California Press, 2018.Google Scholar

Fatout, Paul, ed. Mark Twain Speaking. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1976.Google Scholar

Fears, David. Mark Twain Day by Day. 4 vols. Banks: Horizon Micro, 2008–14.Google Scholar

Fishkin, Shelly Fisher. Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.Google Scholar

Fishkin, Shelly Fisher.Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African American Voices. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.Google Scholar

Fulton, Joe B. Mark Twain’s Ethical Realism: The Aesthetics of Race, Class, and Gender. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997.Google Scholar

Fulton, Joe B.Mark Twain under Fire: Reception and Reputation. Criticism and Controversy, 1851–2015. Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2016.CrossRef Google Scholar

Fulton, Joe B.The Reverend Mark Twain: Theological Burlesque, Form, & Content in Mark Twain’s Works. Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 2006.Google Scholar

Gillman, Susan. Dark Twins: Imposture and Identity in Mark Twain’s America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989.Google Scholar

Gillman, Susan, and Robinson, Forrest G., eds. Mark Twain’s “Pudd’nhead Wilson”: Race, Conflict, and Culture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990.Google Scholar

Gribben, Alan. Mark Twain’s Library: A Reconstruction. 2 vols. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1980.Google Scholar

Harrington, Paula, and Jenn, Ronald. Mark Twain and France: The Making of a New American Identity. Columbia: University of Columbia Press, 2017.Google Scholar

Harris, Susan K. The Courtship of Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Google Scholar

Harris, Susan K.Mark Twain’s Escape from Time: A Study of Patterns and Images. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982.Google Scholar

Hill, Hamlin. Mark Twain: God’s Fool. New York: Harper and Row, 1973.Google Scholar

Horn, Jason G. Mark Twain and William James: Crafting a Free Self. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.Google Scholar

Howe, Lawrence. Mark Twain and the Novel: The Double-Cross of Authority. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998.CrossRef Google Scholar

Howe, Lawrence, and Wonham, Henry B., eds. Mark Twain and Money: Language, Capital, and Culture. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2017.Google Scholar

Kahn, Sholom J. Mark Twain’s Mysterious Stranger: A Study of the Manuscript Texts. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1978.Google Scholar

Kiskis, Michael J., and Skandera-Trombley, Laura, eds. Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in Scholarship. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2001.Google Scholar

Krauth, Leland. Proper Mark Twain. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999.Google Scholar

Kruse, Horst. Mark Twain and “Life on the Mississippi.” Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1981.Google Scholar

Leonard, James S., Tenney, Thomas A., and Davis, Thadious M., eds. Satire or Evasion? Black Perspectives on “Huckleberry Finn.” Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991.Google Scholar

Levy, Andrew. Huck Finn’s America: Mark Twain and the Era That Shaped His Masterpiece. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.Google Scholar

LeMaster, J. R., and Wilson, James D., eds. The Mark Twain Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1993.Google Scholar

Lystra, Karen. Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain’s Final Years. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.Google Scholar

Macnaughton, William. Mark Twain’s Last Years as a Writer. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1979.Google Scholar

Melton, Jeffrey. Mark Twain, Travel Books, and Tourism: The Tide of a Great Popular Movement. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002.Google Scholar

Messent, Peter. The Cambridge Introduction to Mark Twain. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.CrossRef Google Scholar

Messent, PeterMark Twain and Male Friendship: The Twitchell, Howells, and Rogers Friendships. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.CrossRef Google Scholar

Michelson, Bruce. Mark Twain on the Loose: A Comic Writer and the American Self. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995.Google Scholar

Michelson, BrucePrinter’s Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.Google Scholar

Morris, Linda A. Gender Play in Mark Twain: Cross-Dressing and Transgression. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007.Google Scholar

Quirk, Tom. Mark Twain and Human Nature. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2007.Google Scholar

Rasmussen, R. Kent. Mark Twain A to Z. New York: Facts on File, 1996.Google Scholar

Robinson, Forrest. In Bad Faith: The Dynamics of Deception in Mark Twain’s America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1986.Google Scholar

Ryan, Ann M., and McCullough, Joseph B., eds. Cosmopolitan Mark Twain. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008.Google Scholar

Scharnhorst, Gary. The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years 1835–1871. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2018.Google Scholar

Skandera-Trombley, Laura. Mark Twain in the Company of Women. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994.Google Scholar

Skandera-Trombley, LauraMark Twain’s Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years. New York: Knopf, 2010.Google Scholar

Sloane, David E. E. Mark Twain as Literary Comedian. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1979.Google Scholar

Smith, Henry Nash. Mark Twain: The Development of a Writer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1962.Google Scholar

Stahl, J. D. Mark Twain, Culture, and Gender: Envisioning America through Europe. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994.Google Scholar

Steinbrink, Jeffrey. Getting to Be Mark Twain. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.Google Scholar

Stoneley, Peter. Mark Twain and the Feminine Aesthetic. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.Google Scholar

Tenney, Thomas A. Mark Twain: A Reference Guide. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1977.Google Scholar

Tuckey, John. Mark Twain and Little Satan: The Writing of The Mysterious Stranger. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue Research Foundation, 1963.Google Scholar

Wonham, Henry B. Mark Twain and the Art of the Tall Tale. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.CrossRef Google Scholar

Wuster, Tracy. Mark Twain, American Humorist. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2016.Google Scholar

Accessibility standard: Unknown

Why this information is here

This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

Accessibility Information

Accessibility compliance for the HTML of this chapter is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.