Dear Mark Twain

Download or read book Dear Mark Twain written by Mark Twain and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-04-21 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Collects two hundred letters from readers of Mark Twain to the author himself, offering a glimpse into the lives and sensibilites of nineteenth-century children, preachers, con artists, inmates, and other fans of the author's work.

Download or read book Dear Mark Twain written by R. Kent Rasmussen and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2013-04-21 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Mark Twain's Letters written by Mark Twain and published by . This book was released on 1917 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Mark Twain's Letters written by Mark Twain and published by Jazzybee Verlag. This book was released on 1929 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Like his other writings, Mark Twain's letters attest that he was not the greatest of all humorists, but that he did have an amazing gift of depicting the average American, and what is more, that he could do it sympathetically and from the inside of the house, not ironically through the window as Thackeray depicted the absurdities of his contemporaries. The letters show, also, what a storybook life he led. Born obscurely in a western town without advantages, half-educated as a typesetter for a country newspaper, a runaway, a soldier "riding a small yellow mule" to the aid of the Confederacy, a runaway again, a mining prospector familiar with mountain gambling-saloons, a news reporter, he at last acquired some fame with his "Jumping Frog." His reputation travelled east and he became a lecturer and special correspondent. Then, of a sudden, he made himself conspicuous to the entire country with his "Innocents Abroad." He became a mighty traveller. He was feasted by kings, decorated by universities, and honored everywhere. From Hartford all around the earth and back, he was a leading citizen of the world. The ingenious authors of the most shocking fiction could not invent plots swifter or more romantic. This editions contains the letters from the year 1853 all through 1910.

Download or read book Letters of Note written by Shaun Usher and published by Canongate Books. This book was released on 2021-10-28 with total page 641 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Letters of Note, the book based on the beloved website of the same name, became an instant classic on publication in 2013, selling hundreds of thousands of copies. This new edition sees the collection of the world's most entertaining, inspiring and unusual letters updated with fourteen riveting new missives and a new introduction from curator Shaun Usher. From Virginia Woolf's heart-breaking suicide letter to Queen Elizabeth II's recipe for drop scones sent to President Eisenhower; from the first recorded use of the expression 'OMG' in a letter to Winston Churchill, to Gandhi's appeal for calm to Hitler; and from Iggy Pop's beautiful letter of advice to a troubled young fan, to Leonardo da Vinci's remarkable job application letter, Letters of Note is a celebration of the power of written correspondence which captures the humour, seriousness, sadness and brilliance that make up all of our lives.

Download or read book Mark Twain’s Book of Animals written by Mark Twain and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2011-07 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "For those unaware—as I was until I read this book—that Mark Twain was one of America's early animal advocates, Shelley Fisher Fishkin's collection of his writings on animals will come as a revelation. Many of these pieces are as fresh and lively as when they were first written, and it's wonderful to have them gathered in one place." —Peter Singer, author of Animal Liberation and The Life You Can Save “A truly exhilarating work. Mark Twain's animal-friendly views would not be out of place today, and indeed, in certain respects, Twain is still ahead of us: claiming, correctly, that there are certain degraded practices that only humans inflict on one another and upon other animals. Fishkin has done a splendid job: I cannot remember reading something so consistently excellent."—Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, author of When Elephants Weep and The Face on Your Plate "Shelley Fisher Fishkin has given us the lifelong arc of the great man's antic, hilarious, and subtly profound explorations of the animal world, and she's guided us through it with her own trademark wit and acumen. Dogged if she hasn't." —Ron Powers, author of Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain and Mark Twain: A Life

Download or read book Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise written by Oscar Hijuelos and published by Grand Central Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-03 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise, by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Oscar Hijuelos, is a luminous work of fiction inspired by the real-life, 37-year friendship between two towering figures of the late nineteenth century, famed writer and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley. Hijuelos was fascinated by the Twain-Stanley connection and eventually began researching and writing a novel that used the scant historical record of their relationship as a starting point for a more detailed fictional account. It was a labor of love for Hijuelos, who worked on the project for more than ten years, publishing other novels along the way but always returning to Twain and Stanley; indeed, he was still revising the manuscript the day before his sudden passing in 2013. The resulting novel is a richly woven tapestry of people and events that is unique among the author's works, both in theme and structure. Hijuelos ingeniously blends correspondence, memoir, and third-person omniscience to explore the intersection of these Victorian giants in a long vanished world. From their early days as journalists in the American West, to their admiration and support of each other's writing, their mutual hatred of slavery, their social life together in the dazzling literary circles of the period, and even a mysterious journey to Cuba to search for Stanley's adoptive father, Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise superbly channels two vibrant but very different figures. It is also a study of Twain's complex bond with Mrs. Stanley, the bohemian portrait artist Dorothy Tennant, who introduces Twain and his wife to the world of sv©ances and mediums after the tragic death of their daughter. A compelling and deeply felt historical fantasia that utilizes the full range of Hijuelos' gifts, Twain & Stanley Enter Paradise stands as an unforgettable coda to a brilliant writing career.