At the end of his long life, Samuel Clemens felt driven to write a truthful account of what he regarded as the flaws in his character and the errors of his ways. His attempt to tell the unvarnished truth about himself is preserved in nearly 250 autobiographical dictations. In order to encourage complete veracity, he decided from the outset that these would be published only posthumously.Nevertheless, Clemens's autobiography is singularly unrevealing. Forrest G. Robinson argues that, by contrast, it is in his fiction that Clemens most fully-if often inadvertently-reveals himself. He was, he confessed, like a cat who labors in vain to bury the waste that he has left behind. Robinson argues that he wrote out of an enduring need to come to terms with his remembered experiences-not to memorialize the past, but to transform it.By all accounts-including his own-Clemens's special curse was guilt. He was unable to forgive himself for the deaths of those closest to him-from his siblings' death in childhood to the deaths of his own children. Nor could he reconcile himself to his role in the Civil War, his part in the duel that prompted his departure from Virginia City in 1864, and-worst of all-his sense of moral complicity in the crimes of slavery.Tracing the theme of bad faith in all of Clemens's major writing, but with special attention to the late work, Robinson sheds new light on a tormented moral life. His book challenges conventional assumptions about the humorist's personality and creativity, directing attention to what William Dean Howells describes as the depths of a nature whose tragical seriousness broke in the laughter which the unwise took for the whole of him.
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FORREST G. ROBINSON is Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. His many publications include In Bad Faith: The Dynamics of Deception in Mark Twain's America and The Cambridge Companion to Mark Twain, which he edited. He is co-editor, with Susan Gillman, of Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson: Race, Conflict, and Culture.
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1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A revealing insight into Clemens' personal torments,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Author-Cat: Clemens's Life in Fiction (Hardcover)
Forrest G. Robinson (Professor of American Studies, University of California) presents The Author-Cat: Clemens's Life in Fiction, a bold claim that renowned American author Samuel Clemens a.k.a. Mark Twain reveals himself most fully, if at times inadvertently, through his fiction writing. Even though Clemens left behind a wealth of autobiographical dictations at the close of his life, The Author-Cat reveals the Clemens' most powerful emotions permeated his writing, most notably his guilt; he could not forgive himself for the deaths of those closest to him, including his siblings and his own children, his role in the Civil War, his involvement in the duel that caused him to leave Virginia City in 1864, and his sense of moral complicity in the crime of slavery. A revealing insight into Clemens' personal torments, which dares to challenge conventional assumptions on the celebrated humorist's personality, The Author-Cat (named after Clemens' own confession that he is like the cat who labors vainly to bury the waste he has left behind) is enthusiastically recommended for lay readers and literary scholars alike seeking to better understand Samuel Clemens and his works.
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methodless method, moral equanimity, silent assertion, autobiographical dictation, better dreams, mining frontier Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Author-Cat, Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, Telling Fictions, Dreaming Better Dreams, Never Quite Sane, Civil War, The Mysterious Stranger, Joan of Arc, Sam Clemens, Following the Equator, Tramp Abroad, Justin Kaplan, Injun Joe, Aunt Polly, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Moral Sense, Conrad Wiegand, Muff Potter, Henry Nash Smith, The American Claimant, Which Was the Dream, Young Satan, Virginia City Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
methodless method, moral equanimity, silent assertion, autobiographical dictation, better dreams, mining frontier Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
The Author-Cat, Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, Telling Fictions, Dreaming Better Dreams, Never Quite Sane, Civil War, The Mysterious Stranger, Joan of Arc, Sam Clemens, Following the Equator, Tramp Abroad, Justin Kaplan, Injun Joe, Aunt Polly, Pudd'nhead Wilson, Moral Sense, Conrad Wiegand, Muff Potter, Henry Nash Smith, The American Claimant, Which Was the Dream, Young Satan, Virginia City Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
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