Description: Tracks the genesis and evolution of Twain's reputation as a writer, revealing how and why the writer has been "under fire" since the advent of his career.
Review Quotes: Fulton gives an excellent account of the difficulties faced by nineteenth-century American scholars . . . who wanted both to establish American literature on strong 'native' ground yet struggled to recognize that ground in Calaveras County, or a Colorado silver mine, or on the banks of the Mississippi.-- "TLS"