Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 2: 1867-1868 [Hardcover]

Mark Twain (Author), Harriet Elinor Smith (Editor), Richard Bucci (Editor), Lin Salamo (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Mark Twain's Letters | Publication Date: February 2, 1990

Here is young Sam Clemens--in the world, getting famous, making love--in 155 magnificently edited letters that trace his remarkable self-transformation from a footloose, irreverent West Coast journalist to a popular lecturer and author of The Jumping Frog, soon to be a national and international celebrity. And on the move he was--from San Francisco to New York, to St. Louis, and then to Paris, Naples, Rome, Athens, Constantinople, Yalta, and the Holy Land; back to New York and on to Washington; back to San Francisco and Virginia City; and on to lecturing in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. Resplendent with wit, love of life, ambition, and literary craft, this new volume in the wonderful Bancroft Library edition of Mark Twain's Letters will delight and inform both scholars and general readers.

This volume has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mark Twain Foundation, Jane Newhall, and The Friends of The Bancroft Library.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Containing all 155 of Twain's letters surviving from this two-year period, the second volume of this scrupulously annotated, richly illustrated, definitive edition of Twain's letters follows the ambitious Twain, then in his early 30s, from his arrival in New York, through his trip among sanctimonious fellow-passengers on the "Quaker City" to the Holy Land, back to his establishing a lucrative career as humorous lecturer, and, finally, to his worshipful courtship of Olivia Langdon. A sheer pleasure in themselves, these letters also furnish a helpful context for The Innocents Abroad and show Twain trying showily to cast off his Western wildness and adjust to what he thought were the East's expectations. A fine continuation of volume 1, Mark Twain's Letters, 1853-66 ( LJ 4/15/87).
- Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, Mo.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A record of the coming of age of one of America's most remarkable citizens. One can hear the characteristic Twain voice developing, the tart humor, the keen observation and the propensity to dramatize." -- Chicago Sun- Times

"As witty and readable as anything else he ever wrote." -- Houston Chronicle

"No less than splendid . . . one of the most important literary projects to be done in our times, with the happy expectation that it is going to prove a glorious achievement to American letters." -- Nineteenth-Century Literature

"This edition of letters is a scholarly work of the greatest distinction." -- The New Criterion

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 703 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (February 2, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520036697
• ISBN-13: 978-0520036697
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,833,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I Been Here Before I Lighted Out For The Territories, August 13, 2000

By 

desefinado "desefinado" (Centennial, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 3: 1869 (Hardcover)

This volume of effervescence gives off more sparks than a campfire from "Roughing It". It also provides terrific context for a group of essays by Shelly Fisher Fishkin "Lighting Out for the Territories". For real fun read David Carkeet's modern recreation of Twain "I Been Here Before", a book Twain would have somehow wished to be included in his canon. Don't be surprised if someday Carkeet's book is included as a companion volume to the Oxford Mark Twain.