Gary Scharnhorst Research Articles

"A Modern Poet on the Scotch Bard": Walt Whitman's 1875 Essay on Robert Burns

In his 1996 essay hitman on Burns: An Early Essay Recovered, Gary Scharnhorst draws attention to early critical essay on that had hitherto been to scholarship.1 The essay to which he refers, titled A Modern Poet on The Scotch Bard, first appeared in ephemeral newspaper titled Our Land and Time in January 1875 and was subsequently reprinted in the London Academy in February that same year. Whitman later revised the essay for publication- changing the title to Robert as Poet and Person-in the New York Critic (1882), and made minor textual edits for the North American Review in 1886. The North American Review version also appeared three times in 1888 -in November Boughs, Democratic Vistas and Other Papers (London: Walter Scott), and Complete Poems and Prose.Critics of have frequently referenced Robert as Poet and Person when commenting on the possible influence of on Whitman and, more broadly, American literature. Though Scharnhorst drew attention to the discovery of the 1875 early version almost two decades ago, remarkably little has since been written about the essay by scholars of or Whitman. Revisiting Whitman's lost essay is a useful exercise in helping to accentuate and enhance our understanding of his views on Burns. The complete lack of critical engagement with A Modern Poet on The Scotch Bard means that, hitherto, we do not have the fullest possible sense of the American poet's appraisal. I will begin by considering some of the existing commentary regarding Robert as Poet and Person before going on to examine the lost passages of the 1875 essay.Quite often, the more laudatory aspects of Robert as Poet and Person have been strongly emphasized in scholarship, leading to the popular assumption that the American poet admired and praised Burns and identified with the inextricable linkage of American liberty and the common man in Burns's art and thought.2 Perhaps the most commonly quoted, and thus influential, passage from the 1882 and 1886 essays has been W hitman's powerful proclamation that:. . . there are many things in Burns's poems and character that specially endear him to America. He was essentially a Republican-would have been at home in the Western United States, and probably become eminent there. He was average sample of the good-natured, warm-blooded, proud-spirited, amative, alimentive, convivial, young and early-middle-aged man of the decent-born middle classes everywhere and any how. Without the race of which he is a distinct specimen, (and perhaps his poems) America and her powerful Democracy could not exist to-day-could not project with unparallel'd historic sway in the future.3The esteem of Whitman, as well as praise by Ralph Waldo Emerson,4 certainly contributed to becoming an idol of both cultural and literary proportions for the nineteenth-century American reading public.5 However, as Carol McGuirk and Crawford have noted, a fuller reading of W hitman's 1886 essay reveals that the American poet was not entirely complimentary about Burns, despite heralding him as the tenderest, manliest, and (even if contradictory) dearest flesh-and-blood figure in all the streams and clusters of by-gone (NB 64; PW 2:568). In excellent essay, McGuirk suggests that W hitman seems both amazed and rather put off by Burns's emphatic rhyming sound, asserting that the strong influence of Wordsworth may have rendered Burns's verse informal for direct and full imitation by nineteenth-century American poets or too direct.6 Indeed, in Whitman's revised 1886 essay, he describes Burns's versification as idiomatic ear-cuffing restricted by a low and contracted understanding of poetry (NB 63; PW 2:567-568). While praising the raciness and humour of Burns's genuine poetic imagination, Whitman derides the morality in Burns's poetry, rendering it hardly more than parrot talk (NB 60-61; PW 2:563). …

Mark Twain on potholes and politics: letters to the editor

Whether he was taking us along for journey down the Mississippi with couple of runaways or delivering speeches on the importance of careful lying, Mark Twain had an innate ability to captivate readers and listeners alike with his trademark humor and sarcasm. Twain never lacked for material, either, as his strong opinions regarding most issues gave him countless opportunities to articulate his thoughts in the voice that only he could provide. A frequent outlet for Twain's wit was in letters to the editors of various newspapers and periodicals. Sharing his thoughts and opinions on topical issues ranging from national affairs to local social events, with swipes along the way at woman suffrage, potholes, literary piracy and other scams, slow mail delivery, police corruption, capital punishment, and the removal of Huck Finn from libraries, Twain never hesitated to speak his mind. And now thanks to Gary Scharnhorst, more than hundred of these letters are available in one place for us to enjoy. From his opinions on the execution of an intellectually brilliant murderer, to his scathing review of bureau he perceived as a pack of idiots running on currency of doughnuts, Twain's pure, unbridled voice is evident throughout his letters. Mark Twain on Potholes and Politics gives readers chance to delve further than ever before into the musings of the most recognizable voice in American literature.

Julian Hawthorne: the life of a prodigal son

Julian Hawthorne (1846-1934), Nathaniel Hawthorne's only son, lived a long and influential life marked by bad circumstances and worse choices. Raised among luminaries such as Thoreau, Emerson, and the Beecher family, Julian became a promising novelist in his twenties, but his writing soon devolved into mediocrity. What talent the young Hawthorne had was spent chasing across the changing literary and publishing landscapes of the period in search of a paycheck, writing everything from potboilers to ad copy. Julian was consistently short of funds because--as biographer Gary Scharnhorst is the first to reveal--he was supporting two households: his wife in one and a longtime mistress in the other. The younger Hawthorne's name and work ethic gave him influence in spite of his haphazard writing. Julian helped to found Cosmopolitan and Collier's Weekly. As a Hearst stringer, he covered some of the era's most important events: McKinley's assassination, the Galveston hurricane, and the Spanish-American War, among others. When Julian died at age 87, he had written millions of words and more than 3,000 pieces, out-publishing his father by a ratio of twenty to one. Gary Scharnhorst, after his own long career including works on Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, and other famous writers, became fascinated by the leaps and falls of Julian Hawthorne. This biography shows why.

SINCLAIR LEWIS REMEMBERED

SINCLAIR LEWIS REMEMBERED. Ed. Gary Scharnhorst and Matthew Hofer. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2012. xiv + 400 pp. $49.95.In Sinclair Lewis Remembered, editors Gary Scharnhorst and Matthew Hofer have compiled accounts of the famous Nobel Prize-winning author by people who knew him. The book includes reports from seventy-eight different witnesses and organizes their material in accord with the chronology of Lewis's life (1885-1951) so that readers can have the experience of an unfolding from childhood to death, conveyed through eyewitness accounts only. Discussions by people who knew Lewis a long time, such as Chicago book reviewer Fanny Butcher, are broken into segments, with each selection appearing in the book at the appropriate time. In the words of the editors, the volume offers an anecdotal account of Lewis's life, a collaborative biography that presents the complexity of his personality in a way no single biographer (9).The editors have done a good job finding sources. Scharnhorst and Hofer include the major sources known to Lewis scholars, which comprise the bulk of the entries, and add two interviews that they identify as new to the field, one from 1915, in which W. D. Inglis records the author giving upbeat self-help advice, and another from 1921, in which Charles Phillips Russell records Lewis in England distinguishing between Main Street America and Main Street Britain. The editors quietly add as well a small handful of unfamiliar items, including an interesting reminiscence by Emile Gauvreau, a young journalist at the New Haven Journal-Courier when Lewis was working there as a Yale student.The new book is welcome not only because it finds fresh sources but also because it is the first one-volume collection of firsthand material on Lewis, and it is certainly the first effort to tell his life story through primary texts. Surveying them all, a reader can feel more closely connected to the record than with a normal biography, in which everything filters through the biographer. A reader can judge the sources on their merits and decide which ones exhibit the most understanding. The difference between the revealing and the less revealing shows clearly. A short recollection by Harold Loeb, though perceptive, is not as insightful as the reminiscence by Charles Breasted, who was closer to Lewis and knew him longer. Loeb suggested that Lewis might have been blind to the stuffiness of Carol in Main Street (1920) because she was so like his wife Grace (108), whereas Breasted knew that Lewis understood Carol's weaknesses and even identified with her himself (103).Another advantage of an assembly of witnesses is the way the collective testimony can confirm essential features of the subject, as, for example, Lewis's interest in performing extemporaneous monologues. At least twelve people who knew him at various times from his twenties until his death report seeing him create characters spontaneously. Witnesses often say these performances were brilliant, though sometimes long. Another essential Lewis quality, confirmed by as many as six witnesses, was his identification with the characters in his novels, not only with relatively positive ones such as Carol Kennicott but also with seeming targets of satire such as George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry. Instead of thinking of them as alien, he thought of them fondly, almost as if they were part of himself. As Alfred Harcourt notes, if Lewis could not feel himself a part of the character, he would give up writing on the subject (185). This insight helps to explain why Lewis never wrote his long-projected labor novel. As many as six witnesses confirm the extended effort he gave to this undertaking. Putting together their accounts with hints from other writers, one can see that the labor novel never materialized because Lewis knew that his sense of the subject was not sharp enough.A highlight of the new book is a story by Budd Schulberg that takes place right after the publication of It Can't Happen Here (1935). …

SINCLAIR LEWIS REMEMBERED

SINCLAIR LEWIS REMEMBERED. Ed. Gary Scharnhorst and Matthew Hofer. Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 2012. xiv + 400 pp. $49.95.In Sinclair Lewis Remembered, editors Gary Scharnhorst and Matthew Hofer have compiled accounts of the famous Nobel Prize-winning author by people who knew him. The book includes reports from seventy-eight different witnesses and organizes their material in accord with the chronology of Lewis's life (1885-1951) so that readers can have the experience of an unfolding biography from childhood to death, conveyed through eyewitness accounts only. Discussions by people who knew Lewis a long time, such as Chicago book reviewer Fanny Butcher, are broken into segments, with each selection appearing in the book at the appropriate time. In the words of the editors, the volume offers an "anecdotal account of Lewis's life," a "collaborative biography" that presents the "complexity of his personality in a way no single biographer could" (9).The editors have done a good job finding sources. Scharnhorst and Hofer include the major sources known to Lewis scholars, which comprise the bulk of the entries, and add two interviews that they identify as new to the field, one from 1915, in which W. D. Inglis records the author giving upbeat self-help advice, and another from 1921, in which Charles Phillips Russell records Lewis in England distinguishing between Main Street America and Main Street Britain. The editors quietly add as well a small handful of unfamiliar items, including an interesting reminiscence by Emile Gauvreau, a young journalist at the New Haven Journal-Courier when Lewis was working there as a Yale student.The new book is welcome not only because it finds fresh sources but also because it is the first one-volume collection of firsthand material on Lewis, and it is certainly the first effort to tell his life story through primary texts. Surveying them all, a reader can feel more closely connected to the record than with a normal biography, in which everything filters through the biographer. A reader can judge the sources on their merits and decide which ones exhibit the most understanding. The difference between the revealing and the less revealing shows clearly. A short recollection by Harold Loeb, though perceptive, is not as insightful as the reminiscence by Charles Breasted, who was closer to Lewis and knew him longer. Loeb suggested that Lewis might have been "blind to the stuffiness of Carol Kennicott" in Main Street (1920) because she was so like his wife Grace (108), whereas Breasted knew that Lewis understood Carol's weaknesses and even identified with her himself (103).Another advantage of an assembly of witnesses is the way the collective testimony can confirm essential features of the subject, as, for example, Lewis's interest in performing extemporaneous monologues. At least twelve people who knew him at various times from his twenties until his death report seeing him create characters spontaneously. Witnesses often say these performances were brilliant, though sometimes long. Another essential Lewis quality, confirmed by as many as six witnesses, was his identification with the characters in his novels, not only with relatively positive ones such as Carol Kennicott but also with seeming targets of satire such as George Babbitt and Elmer Gantry. Instead of thinking of them as alien, he thought of them fondly, almost as if they were part of himself. As Alfred Harcourt notes, if Lewis could not feel himself a part of the character, he would give up writing on the subject (185). This insight helps to explain why Lewis never wrote his long-projected labor novel. As many as six witnesses confirm the extended effort he gave to this undertaking. Putting together their accounts with hints from other writers, one can see that the labor novel never materialized because Lewis knew that his sense of the subject was not sharp enough.A highlight of the new book is a story by Budd Schulberg that takes place right after the publication of It Can't Happen Here (1935). …

Fighting Words: Polemics and Social Change in Literary Naturalism by Ira Wells (review)

Reviewed by: Fighting Words: Polemics and Social Change in Literary Naturalism by Ira Wells Chuck Robinson (bio) Fighting Words: Polemics and Social Change in Literary Naturalism, by Ira Wells. Studies in American Literary Realism and Naturalism, Gary Scharnhorst, series ed. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2013. x + 208 pp. Cloth, $39.95; E-book, $39.95. Fighting Words will strike all readers as an ambitious book. Ira Wells reconstitutes literary naturalism in reverse through a compelling reading of Richard Wright's discovery of H. L. Mencken. No mere stylistic conceit, this move should also provide plenty of inspiration for future reimaginations of the flows of time, narrative, and concept, and how the confluence of these produces literary history and scholarship—and polemics, Wells would hasten to add. For Wells's dramatically simple argument is just this: that whatever else it else, however else it may be described, what is called literary naturalism is essentially polemic. In his introduction, Wells positions himself quite vocally on the shoulders of June Howard and Lisa Long, desiring much clearer formulations of naturalism's meaning and value. Yet, throughout his book, Wells himself skirts head-on engagement—polemical or otherwise—with those scholars he, citing Long's influential review article, "Genre Matters," sees as not participating in the struggle for clarity. The ground that John Dudley has already cleared is not mentioned (to say nothing of the irony that the painting detail adorning the dust jacket of Fighting Words could have been found on Dudley's A Man's Game just as readily). Jennifer L. Fleissner's complex and sensitive reformulation of naturalism is not even glossed. Moreover, Eric Carl Link's claim that naturalism is a theme rather than a genre is not at all considered (a slip that our author has perhaps inherited from Long's polemical review of these three critics). For some reason—never quite articulated though nods are made toward Howard, Jacques Derrida, Frederic Jameson, and others who have thought about genre—Wells proceeds from the assumption that naturalism must be a genre, or that it is at least genre-l ike. Hence his clearest claim: whatever else (the genre of) naturalism does, it is polemic first. The claim, which I will examine momentarily, has its uses—especially considering the careful historical work the author does to establish canonical texts of naturalism as early instances of contemporary debates. The book is conceptually divided into two parts, a multi-chapter theoretical-critical essay followed by three case studies. The first of these case studies reads Norris's The Octopus as an anticipation of today's ecological debates. The second investigates the conceptual overlap of censorship [End Page 257] and abortion involved in Dreiser's An American Tragedy. The final study returns to Wright, this time reading Native Son in light of the international community's discussions of terror and terrorism just prior to World War II. Each case study can hold its own weight as a self-contained reading of a naturalist novel, and taken together they support Wells's secondary thesis—that, through their respective polemics, naturalist authors and their critic-champions profoundly shaped the 20th and 21st centuries. Such work is, indeed, important scholarly endeavor adding to the perhaps too-thin understanding of literary naturalists' riskier political sallies. Scholars should welcome a time when, seeking to work on The Octopus, An American Tragedy, or Native Son, they are directed to start with Wells's readings. However, I have my own polemic to deploy concerning the theoretical-critical essay of the volume's first half. Wells invites as much, I think, when he titles his introductory chapter "Naturalism: A Polemical Introduction." The first three chapters cast a shadow on the chapters that follow. Chiefly, there is a problem of vagueness and broadness. While Wells's rhetoric suggests that "polemic" is a precise thing, quantifiable and qualifiable with a high degree of exactitude, Wells attempts no direct definition of polemic until thirty pages or so into the text, and by that point it is not so satisfying. When he finally gets there, Wells defines polemic as "weaponized language." Such broadness multiplies confusion: do we recognize naturalists by their polemics, or do...

Mark Twain and Julian Hawthorne

The Mark Twain AnnualVolume 10, Issue 1 p. 47-54 Mark Twain and Julian Hawthorne GARY SCHARNHORST, GARY SCHARNHORSTSearch for more papers by this author GARY SCHARNHORST, GARY SCHARNHORSTSearch for more papers by this author First published: 11 December 2012 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2597.2012.00075.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume10, Issue1November 2012Pages 47-54 RelatedInformation

Mark Twain and Julian Hawthorne

Research Article| January 01 2012 Mark Twain and Julian Hawthorne GARY SCHARNHORST GARY SCHARNHORST Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google The Mark Twain Annual (2012) 10 (1): 47–54. https://doi.org/10.2307/41693898 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation GARY SCHARNHORST; Mark Twain and Julian Hawthorne. The Mark Twain Annual 1 January 2012; 10 (1): 47–54. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/41693898 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressThe Mark Twain Annual Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2012 Mark Twain Circle of America2012Mark Twain Circle of America Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Review: Oscar Wilde in America: The Interviews, by Matthew Hofer and Gary Scharnhorst

Review: <i>Oscar Wilde in America: The Interviews</i>, by Matthew Hofer and Gary Scharnhorst

Twain in his own time: a biographical chronicle of his life, drawn from recollections, interviews, and memoirs by family, friends, and associates

Never one to suffer fools gladly, especially if they wore crinolines, Mark lost as many friends as he made, and he targeted them all indiscriminately. The first major American writer born west of the Mississippi River, he enjoys a reputation unrivaled in American literary history, and from the beginning of his career he tried to control that reputation by fiercely protecting his public persona. Not a debunking account of s life but refreshingly immune from his relentless image making, Gary Scharnhorst s Twain in His Own Time offers an anecdotal version of s life over which the master spin-doctor had virtually no control.The ninety-four recollections gathered in Twain in His Own Time form an unsanitized, collaborative biography designed to provide a multitude of perspectives on the iconic author. Opening with an interview with his mother that has never been reprinted, it includes memoirs by his daughters and by men who knew him when he was roughing it in Nevada and California, an interview with the pilot who taught him to navigate the Mississippi River, reminiscences from his illustrators E. M. Kemble and Dan Beard and two of his so-called adolescent angelfish, contributions from politicians and from such literary figures as Dan De Quille and George Bernard Shaw, and one of the most damning assessments of his character by the author Frank Harris ever published.Each entry is introduced by a brief explanation of its historical and cultural context; explanatory notes provide further information about people and places; and Scharnhorst s introduction and chronology of s eventful life are comprehensive and detailed. Dozens of lively primary sources published incrementally over more than eighty years, most recorded after his death, illustrate the complexities of this flamboyant, outspoken personality in a way that no single biographer could.

On James M. Cox's Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor

The Mark Twain AnnualVolume 8, Issue 1 p. 52-54 On James M. Cox's Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor GARY SCHARNHORST, GARY SCHARNHORSTSearch for more papers by this author GARY SCHARNHORST, GARY SCHARNHORSTSearch for more papers by this author First published: 03 November 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1756-2597.2010.00039.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat Volume8, Issue1November 2010Pages 52-54 RelatedInformation

“He was Known to Us as Mr. Omoo” Julian Hawthorne on Melville

LeviathanVolume 12, Issue 3 p. 93-101 “He was Known to Us as Mr. Omoo” Julian Hawthorne on Melville GARY SCHARNHORST, GARY SCHARNHORST University of New MexicoSearch for more papers by this author GARY SCHARNHORST, GARY SCHARNHORST University of New MexicoSearch for more papers by this author First published: 01 September 2010 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-1849.2010.01383.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Volume12, Issue3October 2010Pages 93-101 RelatedInformation

Mark Twain and His Discontents

Book Review| January 01 2010 Mark Twain and His Discontents AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN. Vol. 1Smith, Harriet Elinor GARY SCHARNHORST GARY SCHARNHORST Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Resources for American Literary Study (2010) 35 (1): 345–351. https://doi.org/10.2307/26367284 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation GARY SCHARNHORST; Mark Twain and His Discontents. Resources for American Literary Study 1 January 2010; 35 (1): 345–351. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/26367284 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressResources for American Literary Study Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2012 AMS Press, Inc.2012AMS Press, Inc. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Mainly the Truth: Interviews with Mark Twain by Gary Scharnhorst, Editor

Mainly the Truth: Interviews with Mark Twain by Gary Scharnhorst, Editor

Edwin Arlington Robinson’s First Professional Publications

Research Article| October 01 2008 Edwin Arlington Robinson’s First Professional Publications Gary Scharnhorst Gary Scharnhorst Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literary Realism (2008) 41 (1): 84–86. https://doi.org/10.2307/27747309 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Gary Scharnhorst; Edwin Arlington Robinson’s First Professional Publications. American Literary Realism 1 January 2008; 41 (1): 84–86. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/27747309 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectiveUniversity of Illinois PressAmerican Literary Realism Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright 2008 University of Illinois Press2008 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Mark Twain's Interviews: Supplement Two

Following the template provided by Rachel Harmon and Gary Scharnhorst in the spring 2007 issue of ALR, we here offer a second supplement to Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews.1 These three newly annotated interviews are each spaced roughly a decade apart, and each is in its own way representa tive of Twain's views on both life and the interview process at the time of its publication. Twain's disinterest and flippant attitude in the first (15a) is reminiscent of the tone in his short piece, An Encounter with an Inter viewer, which first appeared in 1874. The second supplemental interview (56a) highlights the humorist's role at the end of the nineteenth century as an American diplomat to the literary world. The third addition (162a) belongs to the sentimental group of Missouri interviews of 1902, when Twain returned to his boyhood home for the final time. t

Julian Hawthorne's Contributions to the “Pasadena Star-News”, 1923–1935

Research Article| January 01 2008 Julian Hawthorne's Contributions to the “Pasadena Star-News”, 1923–1935 GARY SCHARNHORST GARY SCHARNHORST Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Resources for American Literary Study (2008) 33 (1): 95–132. https://doi.org/10.2307/26367042 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation GARY SCHARNHORST; Julian Hawthorne's Contributions to the “Pasadena Star-News”, 1923–1935. Resources for American Literary Study 1 January 2008; 33 (1): 95–132. doi: https://doi.org/10.2307/26367042 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All Scholarly Publishing CollectivePenn State University PressResources for American Literary Study Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Copyright © 2010 AMS Press, Inc.2010AMS Press, Inc. Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

General Reference Works

Research Article| September 01 2007 General Reference Works Gary Scharnhorst Gary Scharnhorst Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literary Scholarship (2007) 2005 (1): 529–537. https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-2006-022 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Twitter Permissions Search Site Citation Gary Scharnhorst; General Reference Works. American Literary Scholarship 1 September 2007; 2005 (1): 529–537. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00659142-2006-022 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsAmerican Literary Scholarship Search Advanced Search The text of this article is only available as a PDF. Duke University Press2007 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal Issue Section: Part Ii You do not currently have access to this content.

Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews by Gary Scharnhorst, Editor

Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews by Gary Scharnhorst, Editor

Mark Twain: the complete interviews

This volume is an annotated and indexed scholarly edition of every known interview with Twain spanning his entire career. In these interviews, Twain discusses such topical issues as his lecture style, his writings, and his bankruptcy, while holding forth on such timeless issues as human nature, politics, war and peace, government corruption, humor, race relations, imperialism, international copyright, the elite, and his impressions of other writers (Howells, Gorky, George Bernard Shaw, Tennyson, Longfellow, Kipling, Hawthorne, Dickens, Bret Harte, among others). These interviews are both oral performances in their own right and a new basis for evaluating contemporary responses to Twain's writings. Some of the parameters Gary Scharnhorst has followed in assembling the collection is to omit self-interviews, humorous sketches written by Twain in interview form, interviews judged by Twain scholars to be spurious, purported interviews that contain no direct quotations, and interviews that exist only in versions translated from the English, as there is no way to verify the accuracy of their retranslations back into English. Because the interviews are records of verbal conversations rather than texts written in Twain's hand, Scharnhorst has corrected errors in spelling and regularized punctuation. Four interviews here are new to scholarship; fewer than a fifth have ever been reprinted. Because Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews makes accessible, in one volume, source documents of immeasurable value to understanding one of America's most consequential writers, it will be valued by both academic and public libraries, Twain scholars and enthusiasts, and general readers of humor.