Dear Mark Twain: Letters from His Readers

Mark Twain

University of California Press, Apr 21, 2013 - Biography & Autobiography - 295 pages

A voracious pack-rat, Mark Twain hoarded his readers' letters as did few of his contemporaries. Dear Mark Twain collects 200 of these letters written by a diverse cross-section of correspondents from around the world—children, farmers, schoolteachers, businessmen, preachers, railroad clerks, inmates of mental institutions, con artists, and even a former president. It is a unique and groundbreaking book—the first published collection of reader letters to any writer of Mark Twain's time. Its contents afford a rare and exhilarating glimpse into the sensibilities of nineteenth-century people while revealing the impact Samuel L. Clemens had on his readers. Clemens’s own and often startling comments and replies are also included.

R. Kent Rasmussen’s extensive research provides fascinating profiles of the correspondents, whose personal stories are often as interesting as their letters. Ranging from gushing fan appreciations and requests for help and advice to suggestions for writing projects and stinging criticisms, the letters are filled with perceptive insights, pathos, and unintentional but often riotous humor. Many are deeply moving, more than a few are hilarious, some may be shocking, but none are dull.

Contents

• Foreword by Ron Powers: 1
• 30: 8
• Note on Sources: 16
• First page of letter from B W Smith: 37
• Dan in Innocents Abroad: 43
• The suspicious Roughing It flyleaf: 47
• Cover of Will Clemenss Mark Twain 37: 51
• Advertisement for Mark Twains selfpasting scrapbook: 56
• Letter from Eben P Dorr: 60
• Letter from Ola A Smith: 71
• Letter from Wallace W Muzzy: 80
• The counterfeit presentment: 85
• An 1882 autographseeking card: 87
• Grant Mitchell as the kindly migrant camp caretaker in The Grapes of Wrath: 92
• Postcard from Mollie Kane: 96
• 15: 98
• Advertisement for the Paul E Wirt fountain pen: 128
• How the narrator actually climbed the Great Pyramid: 134
• Ellis Parker Butler: 139
• 17: 146
• The wood buffalo chasing Bemis: 154
• The Yankee holding HelloCentral: 159
• An 1892 drawing by Elsa Hinterleitner: 170
• Samuel Clemens with a reformer: 172
• Edwin Brenholtz: 189
• Letter to the editor of Harpers Weekly: 203
• 25: 222
• 77: 241

About the author

R. Kent Rasmussen has published several books on the history of Zimbabwe Ndebele people. Mark Twain was born Samuel L. Clemens in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He worked as a printer, and then became a steamboat pilot. He traveled throughout the West, writing humorous sketches for newspapers. In 1865, he wrote the short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, which was very well received. He then began a career as a humorous travel writer and lecturer, publishing The Innocents Abroad in 1869, Roughing It in 1872, and, Gilded Age in 1873, which was co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner. His best-known works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mississippi Writing: Life on the Mississippi, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Dear Mark Twain: Letters from His Readers; Volume 4 of Jumping Frogs: Undiscovered, Rediscovered, and Celebrated Writings of Mark Twain; Volume 4 of Jumping frogs, Mark Twain; Literatura norteamericana; Volume 4 of Twain, Mark
• Author: Mark Twain
• Editor: R. Kent Rasmussen
• Edition: illustrated, annotated
• Publisher: University of California Press, 2013
• ISBN: 0520261348, 9780520261341
• Length: 295 pages
• Subjects: Biography & Autobiography / Literary Figures; Literary Collections / Letters; Literary Criticism / American / General; Literary Criticism / Books & Reading; Literary Criticism / General