Twain himself said, "I like Joan of Arc best among all my books. It is the best; I know it perfectly well." A serious and carefully considered story about a compelling heroine, the Maid of Orl�ans, Twain viewed the work both as a bid to be accepted as a serious writer and as a gift of love to his favorite daughter, Suzy, who would die tragically three months after Joan of Arc was published. Suzy declared to her sister Clara that Joan of Arc was "perhaps even more sweet and beautiful than The Prince and the Pauper," which she had earlier called "unquestionably the best book" her father had ever written. Modeled in part after Suzy herself, the figure of Joan is a celebration of Twain's ideal woman: gentle, selfless, and pure, but also brave, courageous, and divinely eloquent. Despite its romantic idealism, however, as William Howells wrote, "the book has a vitalizing force. Joan lives in it again, and dies, and then lives on in the love and pity and wonder of the reader." A compelling story of this inspiring heroine.
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Shelley Fisher Fishkin's broad, interdisciplinary research interests have led her to focus on topics including the ways in which American writers' apprenticeships in journalism shaped their poetry and fiction; the influence of African American voices on canonical American literature; the need to desegregate American literary studies; American theatre history; the development of feminist criticism; the relationship between public history and literary history; literature and animal welfare; and the challenge of doing transnational American Studies. Although much of her work has centered on Mark Twain, she has also published on writers including Gloria Anzaldua, John Dos Passos, Frederick Douglass, Theodore Dreiser, W.E.B. Du Bois, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Erica Jong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Tillie Olsen, and Walt Whitman.
Dr. Fishkin is a Professor of English and Director of the Program in American Studies at Stanford University. After receiving her B.A.from Yale College (summa cum laude, phi beta kappa), she stayed on at Yale for a masters degree in English and a Ph.D. in American Studies, and was Director of the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism there. She taught American Studies and English at the University of Texas from 1985 to 2003, and was Chair of the Department of American Studies. She is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England, where she was a Visiting Fellow, and has twice been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford's Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, was a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Japan, and was the winner of a Harry H. Ransom Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Texas.
Dr. Fishkin is the author, editor or co-editor of over forty books and has published over eighty articles, essays and reviews. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Georgian, and Italian, and has been published in English-language journals in Turkey, Japan, and Korea. She is the author of: From Fact to Fiction: Journalism and Imaginative Writing in America (winner of a Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Award for outstanding research in journalism history) (Johns Hopkins, 1985); Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices (selected as an "Outstanding Academic Book" by Choice) (Oxford, 1993); Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture (Oxford, 1997), and Feminist Engagements: Forays Into American Literature and Culture (selected as an "Outstanding Academic Title" by Choice) (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009). She is the editor of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain (Oxford, 1996; Paperback reprint edition, 2009), the Oxford Historical Guide to Mark Twain (Oxford, 2002), "Is He Dead?" A New Comedy by Mark Twain (University of California, 2003), Mark Twain's Book of Animals (Univerisity of California Press, 2009), and The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on his LIfe and Work (Library of America, 2010). She is also a producer of the adaptation of Twain's "Is He Dead?" which had its world debut on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in 2007, and was nominated for a Tony Award. She is the co-editor of Listening to Silences: New Essays in Feminist Criticism (Oxford, 1994); People of the Book: Thirty Scholars Reflect on Their Jewish Identity (Wisconsin, 1996); The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America (M.E. Sharpe, 1997); Mark Twain at the Turn of the Century, 1890-1910 (Arizona Quarterly, 2005); 'Sport of the Gods' and Other Essential Writing by Paul Laurence Dunbar (Random House, 2005), Anthology of American Literature, ninth edition (Prentice-Hall, 2006), Concise Anthology of American Literature, seventh edition (Prentice-Hall, 2010), and a special issue of African American Review devoted to the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar (autumn 2007). From 1993 to 2003 she co-edited Oxford University Press's "Race and American Culture" book series with Arnold Rampersad. She was co-founder of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman society, and has been president of the Mark Twain Circle of America and chair of the MLA Nonfiction Prose Division. She recently finished a term as President of the American Studies Association, and gave keynote talks during the last five years at national American Studies conferences in China, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Her research has been featured twice on the front page of the New York Times, and in 2009 she was awarded the Mark Twain Circle's Certificate of Merit "for long and distinguished service in the elucidation of the work, thought, life and art of Mark Twain." She is t a member of the Board of Governors of the Humanities Research Institute of the University of California, and is a founding Editor of the new online Journal of Transnational American Studies [see http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march11/fishkin-publishes-american-studies-journal-030409.html and http://humanexperience.stanford.edu/twainanimals].
Dr. Fishkin is a Professor of English and Director of the Program in American Studies at Stanford University. After receiving her B.A.from Yale College (summa cum laude, phi beta kappa), she stayed on at Yale for a masters degree in English and a Ph.D. in American Studies, and was Director of the Poynter Fellowship in Journalism there. She taught American Studies and English at the University of Texas from 1985 to 2003, and was Chair of the Department of American Studies. She is a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University, England, where she was a Visiting Fellow, and has twice been a Visiting Scholar at Stanford's Institute for Research on Women and Gender. She has been awarded an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship, was a Fulbright Distinguished Lecturer in Japan, and was the winner of a Harry H. Ransom Teaching Excellence Award at the University of Texas.
Dr. Fishkin is the author, editor or co-editor of over forty books and has published over eighty articles, essays and reviews. Her work has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Georgian, and Italian, and has been published in English-language journals in Turkey, Japan, and Korea. She is the author of: From Fact to Fiction: Journalism and Imaginative Writing in America (winner of a Frank Luther Mott/Kappa Tau Alpha Award for outstanding research in journalism history) (Johns Hopkins, 1985); Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices (selected as an "Outstanding Academic Book" by Choice) (Oxford, 1993); Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture (Oxford, 1997), and Feminist Engagements: Forays Into American Literature and Culture (selected as an "Outstanding Academic Title" by Choice) (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2009). She is the editor of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain (Oxford, 1996; Paperback reprint edition, 2009), the Oxford Historical Guide to Mark Twain (Oxford, 2002), "Is He Dead?" A New Comedy by Mark Twain (University of California, 2003), Mark Twain's Book of Animals (Univerisity of California Press, 2009), and The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on his LIfe and Work (Library of America, 2010). She is also a producer of the adaptation of Twain's "Is He Dead?" which had its world debut on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre in 2007, and was nominated for a Tony Award. She is the co-editor of Listening to Silences: New Essays in Feminist Criticism (Oxford, 1994); People of the Book: Thirty Scholars Reflect on Their Jewish Identity (Wisconsin, 1996); The Encyclopedia of Civil Rights in America (M.E. Sharpe, 1997); Mark Twain at the Turn of the Century, 1890-1910 (Arizona Quarterly, 2005); 'Sport of the Gods' and Other Essential Writing by Paul Laurence Dunbar (Random House, 2005), Anthology of American Literature, ninth edition (Prentice-Hall, 2006), Concise Anthology of American Literature, seventh edition (Prentice-Hall, 2010), and a special issue of African American Review devoted to the work of Paul Laurence Dunbar (autumn 2007). From 1993 to 2003 she co-edited Oxford University Press's "Race and American Culture" book series with Arnold Rampersad. She was co-founder of the Charlotte Perkins Gilman society, and has been president of the Mark Twain Circle of America and chair of the MLA Nonfiction Prose Division. She recently finished a term as President of the American Studies Association, and gave keynote talks during the last five years at national American Studies conferences in China, Denmark, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. Her research has been featured twice on the front page of the New York Times, and in 2009 she was awarded the Mark Twain Circle's Certificate of Merit "for long and distinguished service in the elucidation of the work, thought, life and art of Mark Twain." She is t a member of the Board of Governors of the Humanities Research Institute of the University of California, and is a founding Editor of the new online Journal of Transnational American Studies [see http://news.stanford.edu/news/2009/march11/fishkin-publishes-american-studies-journal-030409.html and http://humanexperience.stanford.edu/twainanimals].
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Overlooked, yes; but wonderful,
By Lauren (Oregon, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) (The Oxford Mark Twain) (Paperback)
There are not enough words to properly rate this book. Mark Twain stepped away from his typical writing style, and the results are amazing. What first drew me to the book was the fact that he had written it, and I simply liked Joan of Arc. This book made me fall in love with her. Yes, it's long, but once you start, you simply can not stop reading. He tells the events of her life beautifully, speaking as Sieur Louis de Conte, her lifelong friend and companion. Everything from the Fairy Tree to her death is enthralling, and he draws medieval France as it was. France was falling, and Joan saved it. Her intelligance beat that of fifty scholars, yet she never learned to read. She could outwit the priest when she was a young child. She overcame all odds, and led France's army to victory. Not many people have read this book, be one of the few that has. I promise that you will not regret it.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not your typical Mark Twain book,
By Paul H (Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) (The Oxford Mark Twain) (Paperback)
"Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" is a unique entry in the catalog of Mark Twain's works. The reader will find here little of the humor and irreverence which are found in most of Twain's earlier works, and none of the darkness and despair which are found in some of his later works. Instead the reader will find a moving story of the life of Joan of Arc, the poor, uneducated peasant girl who was called by God to liberate France, who led a dispirited and broken French army in victory after victory, who was put to death by a corrupt church hierarchy, and who was later canonized as a Catholic saint. While many of the details in the book are fictionalized, the major points of the story are in harmony with the known facts of Joan's life. In fact, Twain spent twelve years doing research for this book.I was pleasantly surprised by Mark Twain's reverent treatment of religion in "Joan of Arc." Judging by Twain's other writings, it seems clear that he did not have a very high opinion of the Catholic Church (especially as it existed in the Middle Ages), or of religion in general. Yet this book is a moving and poignant portrait of a medieval Catholic saint, which shows a great respect for Joan's religious convictions. And Twain makes it clear from the very outset, in the preface to the book, that he believes Joan of Arc to have been one of the greatest people ever to have lived; he says that her character "occupies the loftiest place possible to human attainment, a loftier one than has been reached by any other mere mortal." Mark Twain is quoted as saying that "Joan of Arc" was the book which he liked "best among all my books." I would not go quite that far, as there are several other books of his that I think are better. But this is clearly one of Twain's more underrated and overlooked works. It is somewhat long and slow-moving, but taken as a whole it is an inspiring and enjoyable account of the extraordinary life of Joan of Arc.
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All time greatest book on Joan of Arc,
By
This review is from: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) (The Oxford Mark Twain) (Paperback)
Mark Twain's best. I couldn't put it down. I was away for the weekend, found it on a book table in the lobby, and bought it for bedtime reading. The rest of the weekend was devoted to living Joan's story. A great weekend. An incredible book. This book will make you feel like you walked with Joan, knew her, loved her - READ THIS BOOK. Truly one of the greatest reads of my life! A Book that really changed my perspective on a lot of things.
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