Mark Twain and Youth

How to give a foretaste of 26 essays, each one of them intriguing? … Mac Donnell and Rasmussen have added an important collection to the body of Twain criticism. It is stunningly broad and full of fascination. The way they have herded their academics and independents, their literary analysts and biographers, into a comprehensive whole is stunning. And what an important theme. * Mark Twain Forum *
[These essays] offer an up-to-date glimpse at the true philosophy behind the writings of Mark Twain. * Irish Journal of American Studies *
Editors Rasmussen and Mac Donnell have adjusted the lens on Mark Twain again, and the resultant kaleidoscope of insightful essays focused on "Youth" both delights and stimulates. I will be revisiting this wonderfully rich collection -- so smartly assembled -- again and again. Each essay inspires contemplation. * Barbara Snedecor, Director of the Center for Mark Twain Studies, Elmira College, USA *
Youth romanticized and youth seen clear-eyed, youth celebrated and youth compromised, youth cut short and youth preserved into old age—Mark Twain has always been America’s great poet of our personal, cultural, and national engagement with youth. This marvelous book awakens us brilliantly to that idea. * Jon Clinch, author of Finn *
The very theme of youth is a crucial one in Twain ... the list of authors who have agreed to write for this collection provides a kind of who’s who of the very best critics working in Twain Studies at the present moment. This is a book which I would eagerly anticipate reading, as would any scholar with an interest in Twain. * Peter Messent, Emeritus Professor of American and Canadian Studies, Nottingham University, UK *
Kevin MacDonnell and Kent Rasmussen, whose scholarship has already shown them as two of the best chums Mark Twain ever had, now join forces to illuminate the Master's treatment of the subject that brought him the world's eternal fascination and love. It's better than a circus! * Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and author of several books, including Flags of our Fathers and two biographies of Mark Twain *
The 26 essays in this well-edited collection discuss a wide range of topics that fall under the rubric of "youth," which is a key subject in Mark Twain's writings. The first section offers biographical commentary, mainly dealing with Twain's childhood but also with his later family life, especially the events surrounding the deaths of three of his four children. Other essays address the importance of life events on Twain's fiction and autobiography—for instance, how the death of his infant son Langdon impacted the composition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. And still others look at Twain's writing in the framework of 19th-century children's literature; how the racial divide created by slavery affected his diverse images of childhood; diseases of infancy in the 19th century; the specific ways gender, orphanage, adoption, and cross-dressing were expressed in his portraits of youth; the much-debated meaning of Twain's attraction to young girls—whom he saw as "surrogate granddaughters"—in late life; and the effect on his reputation of evolving ideas in the field of "childhood studies" (discussed in an essay by Andrew Levy). This book will prove valuable in a wide range of disciplines, including those outside literary studies per se. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE *