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Chapter 30 - Reception and Criticism (1960 to Present)

from Part IV - Reception and Criticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2019

By
Joseph Csicsila
Edited by
John Bird
John Bird
Affiliation:
Winthrop University
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Summary

The 1960s saw several seminal works of Twain criticism, including Henry Nash Smith’s Mark Twain: The Development of a Writer, Walter Blair’s study of Huckleberry Finn, and James M. Cox’s Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor. The publication in 1962 of Letters from the Earth and other late writings that had been suppressed by Twain’s daughter Clara brought a complete reappraisal of the author. Justin Kaplan’s 1967 biography, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, was influenced by the split Van Wyck Brooks had earlier argued for, and other biographies have followed, a dozen or more since that time. All of Twain’s major works have received book-length treatment, and thousands of critical articles have been published, most notably on Huckleberry Finn, with his work being treated by all the major theoretical movements of the last half-century. The Mark Twain critical industry continues to thrive.

Keywords

Mark TwainSamuel Clemensreceptioncriticism
Type
Chapter
Information
Mark Twain in Context , pp. 305 - 316
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

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