Description: Mark Twain (born Samuel Clemens), a former printer's apprentice, journalist, steamboat pilot, and miner, remains to this day one of the most enduring and beloved of America's great writers. Combining cultural criticism with historical scholarship, A Historical Guide to Mark Twain addresses a wide range of topics relevant to Twain's work, including religion, commerce, race, gender, social class, and imperialism. Like all of the Historical Guides to American Authors, this volume includes an introduction, a brief biography, a bibliographic essay, and an illustrated chronology of the author's life and times.
Review Quotes: "Twain's views on anything and everything are examined here in concise but sufficiently detailed chapters on topics ranging from race, gender, religion, commerce, and imperialism.... To the student interested not only in Twain's writings, but in the broader subject of his eventful times, this should be a welcome addition."--Virginia Quarterly Review