Tracks the genesis and evolution of Twain's reputation as a writer,
revealing how and why the writer has been "under fire" since the advent
of his career.
Threatened by a rival editor brandishing a double-barreled shotgun,
young Samuel Clemens had his first taste of literary criticism. Clemens
began his long writing career penning satirical articles for his
brother's newspaper in Hannibal, Missouri. His humor delighted everyone
except his targets, and it would not be the last time his writing
provoked threats of "dissection, tomahawking, libel, and getting his
head shot off." Clemens adopted the name Mark Twain while living in the
Nevada Territory, where his caustic comedy led to angry confrontations,
a challenge to a duel, and a subsequent flight. Nursing his wounded ego
in California, Twain vowed to develop a reputation that would"stand
fire" and in the process became the classic American writer.
Mark Twain under Fire tracks the genesis and evolution of Twain's
reputation as a writer: his reception as a humorist, his "return fire"
on genteel critics, and the development of academic criticism. As a
history of Twain criticism, the book draws on English and
foreign-language scholarship. Fulton discusses the forces and ideas that
have influenced criticism, revealinghow and why Mark Twain has been
"under fire" from the advent of his career to the present day, when his
masterpiece Huckleberry Finn remains one of America's most frequently
banned books.
Joe B. Fulton is Professor of English at Baylor University in Waco,
Texas. He has published four previous books on Mark Twain.
