Mark Twain and the Critics, 1891-1910

Over the last twenty years of his life, Mark Twain was a controversial figure. He evolved from the 'clown prince of American literature' into a biting social critic and political observer. While some pundits hailed him as a satirist equal to Cervantes and Jonathan Swift, others excoriated him as a 'degenerate literary freak' who wielded a 'scurrilous and venomous pen.' This volume traces the evolution of Mark Twain's public image between 1891 and his death in 1910. It features hundreds of reviews and other critical notices in magazines and newspapers across the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. The selected samples represent the full range of critical opinion, whether favorable or hostile, about his late writings. Sources reflect geographical differences in Twain's reputation, such as the conflicted responses in the British colonies towards his anti-imperialism and the pious disapproval in the American heartland of his attacks on foreign missions.