new.gif  Mark Twain's Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and
Reading. Volume 1.
By Alan Gribben. NewSouth, 2019. Pp. 350. $60.00. ISBN978-1-58838-343-3 (cloth).
ISBN 978-1-60306-453-8 (ebook)
. A Review by Kevin Mac Donnell

AudioBooks of Albert Bigelow Paine's Mark Twain: A Biography Volume 1 Volume 2 Volume 3

Mark Twain among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples. By Kerry Driscoll, 2018. A Review

"The frog that jump-started Mark Twain's career." LA Times article on
The 150-year celebration at Angels Camp, the Calaveras County mining town,
where Twain first encountered the frog-jumping story.

Outside Links:| MT Papers & Project | MT in His Times | TwainWeb |

Page Links: | Primary Works | A Brief Biography | Study Questions | MLA Style Citation of this Web Page |

| A Brief Biography |

| Selected Bibliography: | Biographical 2000-Present | Critical 2000-Present |



Source: USPS


“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” Mark Twain in Innocents Abroad

"Criticism is a queer thing. If I print 'She was stark naked' - & then proceeded to describe her person in detail, what critic would not howl? - who would venture to leave the book on a parlor table, - but the artist does this & all ages gather around & look & talk & point. I can't say, 'They cut his head off, or stabbed him, ' & describe the blood & the agony in his face." Mark Twain - Notebook #18, Feb. - Sept. 1879

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. if you read it you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. But it's the best book we've had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." - Ernest Hemingway, Green Hills of Africa, 1935

One of the great writers of American literature, Twain is admired for capturing typical American experiences in a language which is realistic and charming. Howells was one of Twain's early admirers, and he wrote the following on Twain's style: "So far as I know, Mr. Clemens is the first writer to use in extended writing the fashion we all use in thinking, and to set down the thing that comes into his mind without fear or favor of the thing that went before or the thing that may be about to follow." Most of the critical attention has been given to Huck Finn, Clemens' greatest achievement. This book concerns itself with a number of themes, among them the quest for freedom, the transition from adolescence into adulthood, alienation and initiation, criticism of pre-Civil War southern life. A remarkable achievement of the book is Clemens' use of American humor, folklore, slang, and dialects. There is critical debate, however, concerning the ending of the book - some call it weak and ineffective, others feel it is appropriate and effective.

Primary Works

The Innocents Abroad, 1869; Roughing It, 1872; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876; A Tramp Abroad, 1880; The Prince and the Pauper, 1882; Life on the Mississippi, 1883; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, 1889; The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins, 1894; Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, 1896; Following the Equator , 1897; Autobiography, 1924; The Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts, 1969; What is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings, 1973.

The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain. NY: Oxford UP, Dec. 2002

The Works of Mark Twain. Volume 8. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Edited by Victor Fischer and Lin Salamo with the late Walter Blair. Berkeley: U of California P, 2003.

Mark Twain Letters. Volumes 1-5. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988-1997.

Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews. Scharnhorst, Gary (ed.). Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2006.

Mark Twain's Book of Animals. Fishkin, Shelley F. ed. Berkeley: U of California P, 2009.

Mainly the Truth: Interviews with Mark Twain. Scharnhorst, Gary. ed. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2009.

The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works. Ed. Shelley F. Fishkin. The Library of America, 2010.

Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1. Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and other editors of the Mark Twain Project. University of California Press, 2010.

Selected Bibliography: Biographical 2000-Present  

Burns, Ken, Dayton Duncan, and Geoffrey C. Ward. Mark Twain, An Illustrated Biography. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.

Emerson, Everett. Mark Twain: A Literary Life. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2000.

Fanning, Philip A., and Alan Gribben. Mark Twain and Orion Clemens: Brothers, Partners, Strangers. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2003.

Holbrook, Hal. Harold: The Boy Who Became Mark Twain. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2011.

Kaplan, Fred. The Singular Mark Twain: A Biography. NY: Knopf, 2005.

Kirk, Connie A. Mark Twain: A Biography. Westport: Greenwood, 2004.

Loving, Jerome. Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens. Berkeley: U of California P, 2010.

Lystra, Karen. Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years. Berkeley: U of California P, 2004.

Mrs. Mark Twain: The Life of Olivia Langdon Clemens, 1845-1904

By: Naparsteck, Martin Jefferson, NC: McFarland; 2014.

Powers, Ron. Mark Twain: A Life. NY: Free, 2005.

Scharnhorst, Gary. ed. Twain in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends and Associates. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2010.

Shelden, Michael. Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years. NY: Random House, 2010.

Skandera Trombley, Laura. Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years. NY: Vintage, 2011.

Trombley, Laura S. Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years. NY: Vintage; 2011.

| Top | Selected Bibliography: Critical 2000 to Present

Barrish, Phillip. White Liberal Identity, Literary Pedagogy, and Classic American Realism. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2005.

Berkove, Lawrence I. Heretical Fictions: Religion in the Literature of Mark Twain. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2010.

Claybaugh, Amanda. The Novel of Purpose: Literature and Social Reform in the Anglo-American World. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP, 2007.

Coulombe, Joseph L. Mark Twain and the American West. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2003.

Daehnke, Joel. In the Work of Their Hands Is Their Prayer: Cultural Narrative and Redemption on the American Frontiers, 1830-1930. Athens: Ohio UP, 2003.

David, Beverly R. Mark Twain and His Illustrators, II (1875-1883). Albany: Whitston, 2001.

Dunne, Michael. Calvinist Humor in American Literature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2007.

Fischer, Victor, and others. eds. Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Berkeley: U of California P, 2001.

Fulton, Joe B. Mark Twain in the Margins: The Quarry Farm Marginalia and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2000.

- - -. The Reverend Mark Twain: Theological Burlesque, Form, and Content. Columbus: Ohio State UP, 2006.

- - -. The Reconstruction of Mark Twain: How a Confederate Bushwhacker Became the Lincoln of Our Literature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2010.

Gribben, Alan.  Mark Twain's Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and
Reading.
Volume 1. NewSouth, 2019.

Huang, Yunte. Transpacific Imaginations: History, Literature, Counterpoetics. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2008.

Krauth, Leland. Mark Twain & Company: Six Literary Relations. Athens: U of Georgia P, 2003.

Lathbury, Roger. Realism and Regionalism (1860-1910): American Literature in Its Historical, Cultural, and Social Contexts. NY: Facts on File, 2005.

Lee, Judith Y. Twain's Brand: Humor in Contemporary American Culture. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2012.

Loving, Jerome. Confederate Bushwhacker: Mark Twain in the Shadow of the Civil War. Lebanon, NH: UP of New England, 2013.

Lowe, Hilary I. Mark Twain's Homes & Literary Tourism. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2012.

McFarland, Philip. Mark Twain and the Colonel: Samuel L. Clemens, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Arrival of a New Century. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2012.

Melton, Jeffrey A. Mark Twain, Travel Books, and Tourism: The Tide of a Great Popular Movment. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2002.

Morris, Linda A. Gender Play in Mark Twain: Cross-Dressing and Transgression. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2007.

Ober, K. Patrick. Mark Twain and Medicine: 'Any Mummery Will Cure'. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2003.

Packard, Chris. Queer Cowboys and Other Erotic Male Friendships in Nineteenth-Century American Literature. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Reigstad, Thomas J. Scribblin' for a Livin': Mark Twain's Pivotal Period in Buffalo. Amherst, NY: Prometheus, 2013.

Robinson, Forrest G. The Jester and the Sages: Mark Twain in Conversation with Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx. Columbia: U of Missouri P, 2011.

Smith, Thomas R. River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi before Mark Twain. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2007.

Spanos, William V. Shock and Awe: American Exceptionalism and the Imperatives of the Spectacle in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Hanover, NH: UP of New England, 2013.

Walsh, Lynda. Sins against Science: The Scientific Media Hoaxes of Poe, Twain, and Others. Albany: State U of New York P, 2006.

| Top | Mark Twain (1835-1910): A Brief Biography

A Student Project by Heather Erwin

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, the fifth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. Shortly before Samuel's birth, the Clemenses had relocated from Tennessee to the unimpressive village of Florida, Missouri. They would remain in Florida until 1839, when they once again relocated. Although the family's move to Hannibal, Missouri was prompted by economic instability, the repercussions would have a profound effect both on young Samuel and his future literary career. It was there that he sought the unbridled freedom and adventure so admired by himself and his peers, and the nearby Mississippi provided the boys with a wealth of opportunities (Bellamy 4).

Despite this seemingly idyllic upbringing, Samuel was not immune to the financial difficulties caused by his father's untimely death in 1847.That same year he began his career in journalism as an apprentice, and in 1850 became employed by his brother Orion, a struggling entrepreneur who owned the Western Union newspaper in Hannibal (Miller 5). It was also during this time that the budding journalist produced his first humorous story, "The Dandy Frightening the Squatter," which was published in the Carpet Bag in 1852 (12: 74). The following year Samuel sought emancipation, as he discarded his job at the Western Union in favor of sporadic employment in various cities along the East Coast. Although Samuel's quest for independence did not abate over the next two years, he found that his wanderings did not produce the financial rewards he had anticipated. Following this revelation, he returned to his former employment with Orion, who had recently acquired a newspaper in Keokuk, Iowa (Miller 6).However, Samuel would not remain on land for long, due to his apprenticeship as a steamboat pilot. His roaming tendencies were indulged in this new career, but the advent of the Civil War ended riverboat travel on the Mississippi (12:74). After a brief stint as a Confederate soldier, the unemployed Samuel joined Orion in an excursion to Nevada. Although the young journalist did not have much success as a prospector, he did gain employment at a local newspaper, the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, in 1862 (Miller 8). Samuel had displayed a unique gift for writing material which was both witty and derisive. His brand of Far-West humor complemented the rambunctious nature of many of Virginia City's residents.

In 1863 Samuel assumed the pseudonym Mark Twain, a Mississippi phrase which meant two fathoms deep. The following year Twain left Nevada a good deal faster than he had entered it, which may be attributed to an invitation to a duel by an opposing journalist. It seems that Twain had published an inflammatory article concerning the journalist, and while the duel never took place, Twain found himself displaced (12: 76). Nevertheless, he was able to obtain employment as a journalist in San Francisco, and it was there that that his contributions to various newspapers and magazines increased dramatically. Twain's literary success culminated in 1865, when the New York Saturday Press published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Twain had revealed his propensity for dry humor and readers consumed it greedily.

Twain continued to travel frequently, and these excursions included a visit to the Sandwich Islands in 1866, followed by a lecture circuit throughout California and Nevada. In 1867, Twain took his lectures across the Atlantic Ocean, and his visits to France, Italy, and the Holy Land would provide him with ample opportunity to satirize European culture. His visits were translated into travel letters, which would contribute to the format of The Innocents Abroad in 1869. Following his return to the United States, Twain married Olivia Langdon, and shortly thereafter he produced Roughing It. The 1872 publication of this novel was not as eagerly received by the public as the earlier The Innocents Abroad, but Twain had established himself as a literary force to be reckoned with (12: 79). If nothing else, he had paved the way for the influx of books to follow.

The newlyweds moved to Hartford, Conneticut; a town which boasted an impressive pedigree of writers. Twain was prolific during the years extending from 1869 until 1889. It was during this period of time that he produced such classics as, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Tramp Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, and the pivotal The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was published in 1884. Despite Twain's continuing success as a writer, his financial affairs were not as stable. His experience with bankruptcy forced him to conduct lectures as a means of income, and this reversal in fortune seemed to affect his personal philosophy as well. He repeatedly emphasized the deterministic nature of man, which necessarily conflicted with the idea of choice in moral situations. In a letter sent to a friend, Twain referred to this limitations, "and this makes it my duty...to be fair to it" (Bellamy 306). The book that exemplifies this brooding uncertainty evident during Twain's later years is, The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, which was published in 1894.

Twain died in 1910 at Stormfield, the family's home located near Redding, Conneticut. His autobiography was published posthumously, and he left behind several unpublished works as well. While Twain's material was characteristic of the period in which he wrote, it becomes necessary to examine the individual themes in order to gain a sense of his motives and convictions. As a Realist, he was strongly attracted to the mundane elements of American life. His portrayal of the commonplace was both vivid and detailed, and it is often the characters, as opposed to the plot, which capture the reader. Much of his material was based on personal experiences, both as a child growing up in the South, and later as a seasoned traveler. Critics of Twain often refer to an underlying purpose lurking beneath the cloak of satire, but many readers are content to accept the improbable plots and complex interrelationships at mere face value. Nevertheless, Twain did address certain components of American culture in a manner which undermined these sacred institutions. In so doing, he assumed the role of social critic. Twain may have realized that in order to make his brand of brazen independence and pessimistic outlook palatable, he must assume a position of familiarity and humor. Twain's dedication to his personal beliefs was given precedence over established social norms, as evidenced by his position on slavery following the Civil War. According to William Dean Howells, who was a contemporary of Twain, "No man more perfectly sensed and more entirely abhorred slavery." (Foner 198) Mark Twain's commitment to his convictions is exemplary, and modern readers will discover that his works remain relevant and insightful. For that we are indebted to him.

Works Cited

Bellamy, Gladys Carmen. Mark Twain as a Literary Artist. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950.

Foner, Philip S. Mark Twain: Social Critic. New York: International Publishers, 1958.

Hill, Hamlin. "Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain)." Dictionary of Literary Biography: American Realists and Naturalists. 12 vols. Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1982.

Miller, Robert Keith. Mark Twain. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1983.

Study Questions

1. Many readers of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn consider the ending flawed&emdash;Hemingway, for example, said that Twain "cheated"&emdash;while others have praised it. Write an essay in which you either defend or criticize the novel's ending, focusing on Huck's treatment of Jim.

2. The theme of pretending is one that unifies Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, although the word pretending takes on several different meanings and levels of significance as the novel unfolds. Describe three of these, and illustrate each by analyzing a specific character, scene, or incident from the novel.

3. If one were constructing a list of "classic" American books, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn would almost certainly appear on the list. Explore in detail why this is the case. In what ways does Clemens take American experience as his subject? What are the elements of Clemens's language and form that readers might consider particularly "American"?

4. Explore the relationship between the symbolism of the river and Clemens's narrative design or structure in the novel.

5. Analyze Clemens's portrait of Jim in light of your reading of Frederick Douglass. Is Adventures of Huckleberry Finn a slave narrative, or does Clemens use the discussion of slavery as a pretext to write about some other issue?

6. Consider Huckleberry Finn as an abused child. Explore the novel as a reflection of late-nineteenth-century attitudes toward child rearing.

7. Analyze Clemens's use of humor, focusing on "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" or "Letter IV" and one incident from Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

8. Analyze Huck Finn's language in the opening passages of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Identify specific features of his syntax and discuss how Clemens uses Huck's style as a way to construct his character.

9. Analyze evidence of dialect in Huck Finn's speech and compare it with dialects spoken by several other characters in the novel. Compare Clemens's depiction of dialect in general with that of Bret Harte, Joel Chandler Harris, or Sarah Orne Jewett.

10. Identify and discuss features of the picaresque novel that Clemens uses in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

11. Analyze Clemens's portrait of Tom Sawyer. Is he model, rival, alter ego, or mirror for Huck? Does he develop in the novel?

12. Analyze Clemens's portrait of Jim. Does he have an independent existence in the novel or does he merely reflect the way others see him? Compare his portrait with portraits of black characters in the Joel Chandler Harris tales or in Charles Chesnutt's The Goophered Grapevine.

13. Study the female characters in the novel. What stereotypes does Clemens use? Do any of his female characters transcend stereotype?

14. Death is a frequent motif in the novel. Comment on its various thematic and symbolic uses, and analyze in particular Huck's symbolic death in Chapter VI.

15. Write an essay on elements of theater in Clemens's work commenting on the relationship between the art and act of oral storytelling and the narrative form Clemens devises for written stories.

16. What is the role of Tom Sawyer in Huckleberry Finn? If you have read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, what is the difference between Tom in the earlier book and in Huckleberry Finn?

17. What aspects of Huckleberry Finn are as vital today as they were one hundred years ago? What in the book helps you understand an earlier era in American history, different from our own?

MLA Style Citation of this Web Page

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 5: Late Nineteenth Century - Mark Twain." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. URL: http://www.paulreuben.website/pal/chap5/twain.html (provide page date or date of your login).
 

| Top |



Mark Twain Forum [TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA] on behalf of Barbara Schmidt [schmidtbrb@GMAIL.COM]ReplyReply AllForwardActions
To:
 TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA
 Wednesday, May 01, 2019 4:42 AM

Wednesday, May 01, 2019 4:42 AM
BOOK REVIEW

The following review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Kevin Mac
Donnell.

~~~~~

Many books reviewed on the Forum are available at discounted prices from
the TwainWeb Bookstore, and purchases from this site generate commissions
that benefit the Mark Twain Project. Please visit <http://www.twainweb.net>.

Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Kevin Mac Donnell

Copyright (c) 2019 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.


_Mark Twain's Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and
Reading. Volume 1._ By Alan Gribben. NewSouth, 2019. Pp. 350. $60.00. ISBN
978-1-58838-343-3 (cloth). ISBN 978-1-60306-453-8 (ebook).


Anyone familiar with Twain studies of the last four decades knows that the
most eagerly anticipated work in the field is the revised and enlarged
edition of Alan Gribben's _Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction_ (1980).
The first edition itself was eagerly anticipated: Six years before it
appeared, Hamlin Hill's famous must-read essay "Who Killed Mark Twain?"
appeared in _American Literary Realism_, where Hill predicted that "source
and influence hunters will have a field-day tracking through its
encyclopedic catalog of volumes the humorist owned and annotated."
Published in an edition of 500 copies, nearly all were sold to libraries
and the book quickly went out of print, driving the price for used copies
as high as $450, putting it out of the reach of most Twainians. This was
especially unfortunate because the immense utility of the work--the result
of its ingenious conception and meticulous execution--had advanced the
direction and scope of Twain studies more than any other work published
since. It may be counted as one of the handful of essential reference works
on Twain, along with Paine's (albeit flawed) biography of Twain, the Mark
Twain Project editions of Twain's _Letters_ and _Autobiography_, and R.
Kent Rasmussen's _Mark Twain A to Z_.

The first of the three volumes of the new edition has now been published;
the second and third volumes will appear later this year and in 2020, and
will be reviewed separately as they are published. Those second and third
volumes will contain the catalogue of the books Twain actually owned or
read, describing their editions, annotations, and ownership markings, and
their influence on Twain's writings. This first volume sets the stage for
the two volumes to follow, and _must_ be read first in order to fully
understand Twain's library, how he used it, and how best to apply that
knowledge to any study of his creative process.

 This first volume gathers together twenty-five of Alan Gribben's essays
about the formation, influence, and dispersal of Mark Twain's library,
along with a new introduction by Gribben, a foreword by R. Kent Rasmussen,
and an expanded Critical Bibliography that nicely captures the crowded
shelf of studies based upon Twain's readings. The critical bibliography
begins with Paine's 1912 biography which foolishly projected Twain's
"reading interests during his final four years onto other periods of his
life . . ." (269). The critical bibliography even includes a 1924 master's
thesis that was the earliest guide to Twain's reading.

Gribben's essays, published over the last forty-seven years tell one
fascinating tale after another. He describes Twain's "Library of Literary
Hogwash" which consisted of books so bad that they were relished by Twain
as "_exquisitely_ bad." He describes Twain's uncanny ability to read sense
into Robert Browning's dense poetry, the evocative story behind Susy
Clemens's set of Shakespeare, Tom Sawyer's (and America's) falling under
the spell of romantic adventure stories, the literary knowledge on display
in _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_, Twain's favorite books, Twain's
earliest literary exposures, the popular myth of Twain as an unlettered
author and how Twain himself promoted that public illusion, Twain's
familiarity with the Arthurian legends, Twain's debt to "boy's books" when
composing his own greatest works, the ways certain books influenced
particular writings by Twain, and how Twain's reading habits and tastes
evolved over time. Written during five decades, these accounts
interconnect, and they are all page-turners, especially when Gribben
describes his adventures in tracking down Twain's widely dispersed library.
He tracks down nearly 100 books from Twain's library that had been given to
Katy Leary. Another book from Twain's library shows up through interlibrary
loan. Forgeries are discovered in public and private collections. The
maddening story of how Twain's library was scattered in all directions is
balanced by the gratifying story of how much of it has been recovered and
preserved.

In addition to enlarging the inventory of surviving books and identifying
the specific editions of the books listed in the various sales of books
from Twain's library, Gribben has also identified much new evidence of
Twain's readings in Twain's own writings. In his writings Twain often
mentions authors or books by name, but he more often alludes to people or
events, both fictional and nonfictional, that reflect his own reading. Of
course, Gribben is not the only person who has identified such sources, and
he includes the findings of many others' work, all reflected in his
extensive Critical Bibliography or in the individual catalogue entries.

Twain's reading habits had already expanded beyond the horizons of Hannibal
when, as a teenager in 1852, he read an issue of the _Philadelphia Courier_
that gave him the idea of writing an essay about Hannibal that he published
in that paper a short time later. He would remain a daily reader of
newspapers for the rest of his life. Thanks to the newspaper exchange
system, he read papers from all over the country every day, seeking fodder
to fill the pages of the newspapers where he was employed early in his
career, and later as a newspaper owner and editor. As a young man he read
obscure short-lived comic journals, and all his life he read the major
magazines of his day. He was photographed with piles of magazines and
newspapers, sometimes reading a magazine or paper whose name and date can
be identified.

Twain was a life-long patron of libraries, taking advantage of two
printers' association libraries (one held 4,000 volumes) while employed as
a type-setter in New York City in 1853. He was awarded a sterling silver
key in return for officiating at a library opening in England, and he
befriended Andrew Carnegie, who established more public libraries in the
United States than any other library benefactor in US history. Twain
himself gave books from his own library to libraries several times in his
life, most notably establishing a public library in Redding, Connecticut,
with a large donation of books from his own shelves.

Mark Twain was as much a reader as a writer, a bibliophile and connoisseur
who appreciated fine printing and elegant bindings, and also an avid reader
who literally consumed books, sometimes tearing or cutting them to pieces.
Twain's copy of Francis Galton's _Finger Prints_ (1892) does not survive,
but he clipped out the illustration of fingerprints from the title-page of
his copy and sent it to his publisher when brainstorming an idea for the
title-page design for _Pudd'nhead Wilson_. On the other hand, the books he
gave his wife and daughters were often sumptuously bound with heavily gilt
full leather bindings with silk end papers, like the edition of Browning he
gave his daughter Susy, or a set of Sir Walter Scott he gave his wife. A
copy of Bayard Taylor's _Home Ballads_ (1882) that Olivia Clemens gave her
mother on behalf of Jean and Clara (Susy was then old enough to select her
own gift for her grandmother) was elaborately bound in leather with
striking bird's-eye maple panels inset on the front and back covers.
Although Twain sometimes destroyed books in the service of his art,
beautiful examples of the book arts adorned the shelves of the Clemens
family library and were prized.

Despite his vast and varied life-long reading habits, he cultivated a
public persona of not being particularly well-read, once writing an editor
of _The Critic_ that soliciting his opinion of what people should read
would be worthless to readers of _The Critic_ because he read mostly
history and biography, and that the sum total of the fiction and poetry
that he'd read would barely fill three octavo volumes. Paine and Howells
both played roles in perpetuating the myth that Twain did not appreciate
_belles-lettres_. In truth, Twain's personal library consisted of at least
3,000 volumes, of which slightly more than one-third survive. His access to
the Langdon family library in Elmira, where he spent several months every
year during the twenty most productive years of his writing career,
broadened the scope of his available reading materials.

It is sometimes forgotten that in Twain's day there was no television,
radio, movie theaters, internet, or other distractions competing as sources
of news or entertainment. Live entertainment--lectures, music, stage
performances, circuses, panoramas, carnivals, fairs, church socials, sewing
circles, reading clubs, and the like--filled many hours, but reading in the
home accounted for many more hours of the day, and there was a centuries
old tradition of reading aloud in church, school, and at home. That
tradition was honored in the Clemens household. Twain read much more than
most Americans and owned a library several times larger than those found in
the majority of nineteenth century households.

Fortunately for Twainians, he also annotated his books more heavily than
most readers of his time, as demonstrated by the surviving third of his
library, as well as the many books in the Langdon family library that he
did not hesitate to mark up as he pleased. He was well-versed in the Greek
and Roman classics, the Bible, and classic works of literature from several
cultures, and his library also reflected a broad range of readings in
religion, politics, history, contemporary novels and poetry, travel,
biography, natural history, and medicine, as well as more narrow interests
like surnames, phrenology, astronomy, English sign-posts, and collections
of criminal trials. Twain's annotations often reflect a deep interest in
these subjects with cross-references to his other reading. Twain's stories
and characters may have come from his personal experiences, but the themes
and structures of his writings can be directly traced to his reading.
Twain's annotations are revelatory and make for entertaining reading. If
Twain's public writings are free of starch and full of truth, his book
annotations are free of restraint and bursting with naked candor,
especially when he made notations he knew his wife and children--and future
owners of these books--might read.

It would be pretty to think that every book Twain ever read survived in his
library up to the time of his death, but the dispersal of his library began
with Twain himself during his lifetime. When he traveled for extended
periods his library was routinely put into storage (in 1878-1879,
1891-1900, and 1903-1904) and not all of his books found their way back to
his shelves. He sent two "bushels" of books to help a library near his
Riverdale home in 1903, and he donated "four or five hundred old books" to
the Redding town library in June 1908. His daughter Clara donated at least
1,750 more volumes to that library in Redding, Connecticut, a short drive
down the road from his last home, Stormfield--there is some evidence the
number might have been as many as 3,500 volumes. Some of those books were
retained by the vice-president of that library, Twain's friend and
illustrator, Dan Beard. It appears some of those books were sold almost
immediately at a town "fair" to benefit the library. Other books were left
with Albert Bigelow Paine.

When Twain died, his bereaved long-time housekeeper, Katy Leary, was
allowed to keep ninety books from his library; those volumes would later be
rescued from a porch where they had been left in grocery bags to be hauled
away. Clara and Ossip Gabrilowitsch lived for a time at Stormfield after
Twain's death, and before they moved, Clara gave away household items to
her neighbors, like pots and pans and bric-a-brac, and she may have given
away some books as well. In 1911 an auction was held in New York with 556
lots of books and household items from Mark Twain's estate, scattering 483
of his books far and wide, some never to be seen again. In the 1930s and
1940s Clara sometimes gave away books from her father's library, first in
Detroit and later in Los Angeles, and through a local bookseller she sold
sixty books to Estelle Doheny, a wealthy collector whose collection was
widely scattered when sold at auction in 1988 and 1989.

 In 1951 Clara emptied most of her remaining shelves, and more than 300
lots of books from Twain's library were sold at a public auction held in a
carnival-like atmosphere on the grounds of her Hollywood home--complete
with a hot dog stand. One buyer stored his purchases in barrels which were
discovered in 1997, sent to auction, and are now at the Mark Twain House &
Museum in Hartford. In 1952, the librarian at the Mark Twain Library in
Redding held a sale that rid the small town library of books that were not
being checked out and taking up much-needed shelf space. Unfortunately,
that sale included an undetermined number of books from Twain's original
donation from his library, many of which have yet to resurface.

Despite more than a century of dispersal and destruction, many of Twain's
books have been preserved. The bulk of his surviving books are to be found
at The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford (300 vols.), The Mark Twain
Papers at University of California at Berkeley (170  vols.), The Center for
Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College (ninety  vols., plus 1,500 vols. from
the Langdon family library of which nearly 700 date from Twain's time in
Elmira--some with Twain's annotations), the Mark Twain Library in Redding,
Connecticut (240 vols.), and the personal collection of Kevin Mac Donnell
(300 vols., plus forty-four Langdon family library books from Twain's time
in Elmira--some with Twain's annotations). These counts are approximate and
all are "volume counts" that include multi-volume sets which often include
multiple annotated volumes. Compared to other author's libraries, Twainians
have less to complain about than they might first imagine.

Literature on authors' libraries is relatively sparse, but those seeking
context, might consult _Collecting, Curating, and Researching Writers'
Libraries_  (2014), a collection of essays and interviews edited by Richard
Oram and Joseph Nicholson which includes a long list of authors' libraries
with data on how much of each library survives, and where. Twain's library
fares quite well when compared to the libraries of  Kate Chopin, Stephen
Crane, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William
Dean Howells, Henry James, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David
Thoreau, and Walt Whitman. Catalogues of many of those libraries have
appeared over the decades, but none compare to the comprehensive
investigation that Gribben has devoted to Twain.

Gribben's astonishing accomplishment is one of the handful in Twain studies
that will stand as a foundational reference work for generations. Of
course, new volumes from Twain's library will continue to appear, and in
another fifty years--if luck holds and enough long-lost volumes from
Twain's library continue to come to light--there may be a need for an
addendum, but the solid foundation laid by Gribben will endure. In the
meantime Twainians should count themselves lucky and get to work
immediately, exploring the new avenues of enquiry suggested by Gribben's
tireless labor, while those who study the writings of Dickens, Hawthorne,
James, Melville, Poe, Whitman and other literary giants look on helplessly
from the sidelines and lament that no Gribben has yet appeared among them.

| Top |