Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1852-1890

Mark Twain

The Library of America, 1992 - Fiction - 1120 pages

This with its companion volume is the most comprehensive collection ever published of Mark Twain's short writings: the incomparable stories, sketches, burlesques, hoaxes, tall tales, speeches, satires, and maxims of America's greatest humorist. Arranged chronologically and containing many pieces never before collected, the volumes show with unprecedented clarity the literary evolution of Mark Twain across six decades of his career.
The 191 separate items in this volume cover the years from 1852 to 1890. As a riverboat pilot, Confederate irregular, silver miner, frontier journalist, and publisher, Twain witnessed the tragicomic beginning of the Civil War in Missouri, the frenzied opening of the West, and the feverish corruption, avarice, and ambition of the Reconstruction era. He wrote about political bosses, jumping frogs, robber barons, cats, women's suffrage, temperance, petrified men, the bicycle, the Franco-Prussian War, the telephone, the income tax, the insanity defense, injudicious swearing, and the advisability of political candidates preemptively telling the worst about themselves before others get around to it.
Among the stories included in this volume are "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog," which won him instant fame when published in 1865, "Cannibalism in the Cars," "The Invalid's Story," all three stories of the McWilliamses, and the charming "A Cat Tale," written for his daughters' private amusement. This volume also presents several of his famous and successful speeches and toasts, such as "Woman - God Bless Her," "The Babies," and "Advice to Youth." Such writings brought Twain immense success on the public lecture and banquet circuit, as did his controversial "Whittier Birthday Speech," which portrayed Boston's most revered men of letters as a band of desperados.
"Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand," he once wrote. A master of deadpan hilarity, a storyteller who fashioned an exuberant style rooted in the idiom of of his western origins, and an enemy of injustice who used scathing invective and subtle satire to expose the "humbug" of his time, Twain, like Franklin, Whitman, and Lincoln, helped shape the American language into a unique democratic idiom that was to be heard around the world.
The publishing history of every story, sketch, and speech in this volume has been thoroughly researched, and in each instance the most authoritative text has been reproduced. This collection also includes an extensive chronology of Twain's life, helpful notes on the people and events referred to in his works, and a guide to the texts.

What people are saying

Review: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches and Essays 2: 1891-1910 (Library of America #61)

User Review  - Adry Giron - Goodreads

Absolutely delightful. The way it is set up allows the reader to see the progress of Twain's writing through six decades, starting from the very beginning in Hannibal. Very unique and interesting, overall a reccomended read so far.

Review: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches and Essays 2: 1891-1910 (Library of America #61)

User Review  - Keeko - Goodreads

I discovered him as a kid in my grandparents' library. They had a copy of Tom Sawyer, and I've been reading him ever since. It's interesting to read him now because before I just thought "funny," and ...

Contents

• The Dandy Frightening the Squatter: 1
• Editorial Agility: 7
• Ghost Life on the Mississippi: 14

About the author

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri. Following careers as a printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, and a brief stint in the Confederate militia, Twain wrote such American classics as" The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1852-1890; Volume 1 of Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays, Mark Twain; Library of America
• Author: Mark Twain
• Publisher: The Library of America, 1992
• Original from: the University of Michigan
• Digitized: Jan 20, 2010
• Length: 1120 pages
• Subjects: Fiction / General; Fiction / Literary; Humorous fiction, American; Humorous stories, American; Literary Collections / American / General; Literary Criticism / American / General; Speeches, addresses, etc., American