harry l. Katz’s book, Mark Twain’s America, offers a fascinating insight into the writer using rare illustrations, old photographs, maps, and more. katz chose 10 of the best twain books.
mark twain’s america grew out of my desire to understand the author’s persistent and pervasive influence. Thanks to the Internet and digital publishing, Twain is now more widely read than ever. His river novels are still required reading for young students, his social commentary and legendary aphorisms appear widely and daily on social media. he is considered the most American of writers, and so he considered himself. his searing criticism of our politics and culture resonates today. he appealed to the high street and the wall alike, spanning social, economic, and racial divides with brilliant wit and deep conviction. Two was, in many ways, a man out of his time. By stepping back and taking a critical look through vintage images and illustrations, we can better appreciate his uniqueness and his remarkable contributions.
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As a visual historian, I find my two favorite books to be richly illustrated.
1. Roughing It (1872) is Twain’s second book, a comic play through the Wild West with amusing sketches of the author’s misadventures. The book recounts Twain’s escape from Hannibal to the Nevada silver mines at the start of the Civil War. we read of his encounters with Mormons and pony express riders, gunmen and stagecoach drivers along his way. He eventually finds himself in San Francisco and the California goldfields, where he finds profitable ground with the Chinese tale of the mining camp, “the celebrated jumping frog of Calaveras County”. The Twain West has been mostly ignored in later popular depictions of the frontier, which concentrate on outlaws, lawmen, and Indians with bold names like Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, and Crazy Horse. this is a classic early twain: loud, boisterous, and a lot of fun.
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2. The Gilded Age (1873), the novel co-written by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner that gave the era its name, is a wonderfully sharp satire on American mores and morals, an early guide to political corruption in the higher levels. with loving word portraits and humorous illustrations depicting the scoundrels and profiteers who drive American plot and politics. It is, among other things, a preview of the pervasive influence of money in 21st-century Washington. There is no small irony in the twain’s portrayal of gullible characters involved in get-rich-quick schemes, having their own finances nearly ruined multiple times by bad investments.
the river novels come next: 3. the adventures of tom sawyer (1876) and 4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) depicts the two’s rise to literary prominence and maturation as an artist, showcasing their genius for dialogue and dialect, unforgettable characters, and prescient social commentary wrapped in the amazing spiritual presence of the Mississippi River (for To fully appreciate Twain’s devotion to the river, continue reading Life on the Mississippi (1883). Twain’s love of the river began when he was a boy, he grew up within sight of the Mississippi, and their relationship deepened with his Civil War-interrupted stint as a riverboat pilot. he saw and remembered all the stuff of humanity from those formative years and poured it all into these three volumes.
5. a connecticut yankee in the court of king arthur (1889) is an entertaining and engaging celebration of american ingenuity and republicanism, sending salvos across the pond to the calcified conventions of european nobility and the established church . feudal conventions and institutions and the arrogance of power are shattered. two understood that the fish-out-of-water story (a 19th-century man somehow transported to medieval England) was the perfect vehicle for social commentary. They both loved England, and the people of that nation held him in the highest regard, despite his scathing criticism of their history and customs.
6. Pudd’nhead Wilson’s tragedy and those extraordinary twins (1894) is even more powerful and compelling, a step beyond Huck Finn’s journey to enlightenment with missing slave Jim; roxy’s tainted blood and the terrible decision to switch half-breed babies soon after their birth in order to give her own son a clear path to success and respectability, the forensic clarity of puddn’head, the terrible juxtaposition of good and evil, black and white, nature versus nurture are brilliantly explored by two. The “Puddn’Head Wilson Calendar,” an extended and embedded display of Twain’s legendary aphorisms and witty quips, is an added bonus. Like many of Twain’s later works, Pudd’nhead reflects his own dark personal journey.
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7. Following the Equator (1897), a two-style global travelogue, declares his war against imperialism at home and abroad. On a lecture tour between 1895 and 1896, Twain traveled the world, both to reduce his indebted finances and to generate material for his next book. In Australia, New Zealand, India, and South Africa, he finds oppression, superstition, racial animus, and sheer ignorance. Despite all of his criticism of foreign cultures and customs, at the dawn of the American century, he distrusted our own presumption of exporting our values to “lesser” peoples.
8. The Mysterious Stranger (1916), published posthumously, is the culmination of two’s reflections on the dual nature of man and the ongoing battle between God and Satan for control of our poor, damned souls. at the end of their incredibly active and productive lives, two were defeated by age and loss, concluding that we are nothing but flawed creatures; life is a game of dominoes that leads inexorably to the end. even as the title character observes that “every man is a suffering machine and a happiness machine combined”, working in harmony, you can’t help but think that the suffering part of the two’s own lives had triumphed and was slowly drowning out the little joy was left.
9. Eva’s Diary (1906), among his latest works, don’t miss the illustrated edition of this, the heartfelt and emotional tribute of two to the first woman and his deceased and lamented wife, Livy. lester ralph’s controversial nude drawings of adam and eve (which got the book banned from at least one new england public library) wonderfully complement the lost innocence found in the garden and leave us with a bittersweet, ineffable sense of loss.
10. autobiography: finally, twain’s last masterpiece, three projected volumes. Published by the Mark Twain Project beginning in 2010, it presents the author on his own terms, flaws exposed, short attention span acknowledged, brilliance revealed, the final testament to the most openly humane and humane writer we have ever known.
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