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The Reconstruction of Mark Twain : How a Confederate Bushwhacker Became the Lincoln of Our Literature

By: Fulton, Joe B.
Material type: TextTextSeries: eBooks on Demand.Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War: Publisher: Baton Rouge : LSU Press, 2011Edition: 1.Description: 1 online resource (254 p.).ISBN: 9780807138045.Subject(s): Literature and society - United States - History - 19th century | Literature and society --United States --History --19th century | Twain, Mark - Political and social views | Twain, Mark, --1835-1910 --Political and social viewsGenre/Form: Electronic books.Additional physical formats: Print version:: The Reconstruction of Mark Twain : How a Confederate Bushwhacker Became the Lincoln of Our LiteratureDDC classification: 818.409 | 818/.409 Online resources: Click here to view this ebook.
Contents:
Contents; Preface; 1. "The Killing of Strangers": MARK TWAIN'S MISSOURI AND THE CIVIL WAR, 1835-1861; 2. "I Naturally Love a Yankee": TWAIN'S CIVIL WAR IN NEVADA, 1861-1864; 3. "The Genative, Dative, and Ablative Cases of Traitors": TWAIN'S SAN FRANCISCO SATIRES, 1864-1866; 4. Seeking a Reputation "That Shall Stand Fire": TWAIN, RECONSTRUCTION, AND THE IMPEACHMENT CRISIS IN WASHINGTON, 1866-1869; 5. The "Lincoln of Our Literature": THE RECONSTRUCTED MARK TWAIN, 1870-1910; Notes; Works Cited; Index
Summary: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who later achieved fame as the writer Mark Twain, served as second lieutenant in a Confederate militia, but only for two weeks, leading many to describe his loyalty to the Confederate cause as halfhearted at best. In The Reconstruction of Mark Twain, Joe B. Fulton challenges these long-held assumptions about Twain's advocacy of the Union cause, arguing that Clemens traveled a long and arduous path, moving from pro-slavery, secession, and the Confederacy to pro-union, and racially enlightened. A deft blend of biography, history, and literary studies, this book offers a bold new assessment of the work of one of America's most celebrated writers.
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Item type Current location Call number URL Status Date due Barcode
Electronic Book UT Tyler Online
Online 		PS1342.S58F853 2010 (Browse shelf) http://uttyler.eblib.com/patron/FullRecord.aspx?p=669033 Available EBL669033

Contents; Preface; 1. "The Killing of Strangers": MARK TWAIN'S MISSOURI AND THE CIVIL WAR, 1835-1861; 2. "I Naturally Love a Yankee": TWAIN'S CIVIL WAR IN NEVADA, 1861-1864; 3. "The Genative, Dative, and Ablative Cases of Traitors": TWAIN'S SAN FRANCISCO SATIRES, 1864-1866; 4. Seeking a Reputation "That Shall Stand Fire": TWAIN, RECONSTRUCTION, AND THE IMPEACHMENT CRISIS IN WASHINGTON, 1866-1869; 5. The "Lincoln of Our Literature": THE RECONSTRUCTED MARK TWAIN, 1870-1910; Notes; Works Cited; Index

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who later achieved fame as the writer Mark Twain, served as second lieutenant in a Confederate militia, but only for two weeks, leading many to describe his loyalty to the Confederate cause as halfhearted at best. In The Reconstruction of Mark Twain, Joe B. Fulton challenges these long-held assumptions about Twain's advocacy of the Union cause, arguing that Clemens traveled a long and arduous path, moving from pro-slavery, secession, and the Confederacy to pro-union, and racially enlightened. A deft blend of biography, history, and literary studies, this book offers a bold new assessment of the work of one of America's most celebrated writers.

Description based upon print version of record.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Fulton (Baylor Univ.) explores the key question in Twain biography: how did a southerner from a slave-holding state become the US's greatest spokesman for equality of race and humanity? Fulton finds in Missouri, a border state, influences that sensitized Twain to the provisional nature of social dictates, the underpinnings of his literary comedy. Most impressive is Fulton's ability to discover in Twain's comic doings in Nevada, newspaper hoaxes, and sojourn in Washington the politics underlying Twain's shifting positions. Few have studied these revelatory occasions in terms of Twain's maturation as a social thinker. By way of closing summary, Fulton examines a crucial, rarely noted late statement of Twain's that is perhaps the best explanation of Twain's emotional literary history: in a 1907 piece in The New York Times, Twain observed that only in the locus of the border states could Lincoln have developed the mixture of humor and tragedy representative of his (and Twain's) vision. The book is laced with such revelations. If one were to select among the exciting, even brilliant recent books on Twain, this clear, readable volume would serve well: Fulton uses fresh sources and deals with the effect on Twain of the ambiguities of the Civil War. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. D. E. Sloane University of New Haven

Author notes provided by Syndetics

<p>Joe B. Fulton is professor of English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He is the author of The Reverend Mark Twain, Mark Twain in the Margins, and Mark Twain's Ethical Realism, among other works.</p>

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