... Arthur’s Court. i  Editions and Bibliographical Studies A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings by Mark Twain, Livy Cle- mens, and Susy Clemens, ed. Benjamin Griffin (Calif publishes pri- vate writings by Mark Twain, his wife, and his daughter, manuscripts never intended for publication...

... and the life-altering tensions between two of the Clemens brothers. In a sign of advancing specialization, even Mark Twain’s ‘‘per- sonal experience with . . . the competing medical systems of the nine- teenth century’’ gains a book of its own. Twain’s business a√airs likewise receive book-length...

...- politan Twain reminds readers how truly sophisticated Samuel Clemens became in spite of his small-town origins. And thanks to David H. Fears Twain scholars at last gain a chronological reference work in which they can look up his day-to-day experiences. i  Editions Rachel Harmon and Gary...

... of the pen name in “How Samuel Clemens Found ‘Mark Twain’ in Carson City” (MTJ 50, i–ii: 8–47). A character named “Mark Twain” appears in an anonymous 1861 Vanity Fair comic sketch, “The North Star.” Rather than two marks on the sleeve from a bartender or a pen name borrowed from Captain Isaiah...

...), collects letters from Grace King, Mark Twain, the Clemens family, and others, from to . rough the letters and editorial commentary, Pfe er fully docu- ments the literary and personal friendship between the Southern writer King and Twain, but even more so, the deep bond between King and Livy Clemens as well...

... that will be felt in the classroom as well as in the bibliographies of future studies of Twain. Two important collections of Twain’s writings reach the trade market. A major biography scrutinizes the pressures and dynamics within Clemens’s final household, reaching dramatic new conclusions...

... of appendices, editorial guides, textual commentaries, and indexes. Mark Twain s Letters, Volume 5: 1872 1873, ed. Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith (Calif., 1997), gives us a Samuel L. Clemens who is married, often on the road lecturing, becoming the father to a daughter, traveling three times to London...

.... Whether unconsciously or deliberately, for 34 of the 46 chapters Pow- ers narrates the story of “Sam,” but then shifts gears in 1880 and refers more respectfully to “Clemens,” “Samuel Clemens,” or “Mark Twain.” Perhaps he is endeavoring to reflect the rise of Twain’s literary stature. In any event...

... chapters are arranged chronologically and mostly by location, covering Clemens s ancestry, his childhood, the death of his father (which Scharnhorst speculates was caused by syphilis), his work as a cub printer, and his travels to a succession of U.S. cities as a jour printer. He claims, controversially...

... or professional lives to establish strong personal bonds that offer emotional and social support and reinforce a modern sympathy. The relationship between a writer’s past and its relation to a defini- tion or understanding of history is the focus of Forrest G. Robinson’s “Deliver Us from Evil: Clemens...

... as yet another American writer who ‘‘has proved to be a one-book author ii Biography Finally, Dixon Wecter’s Sam Clemens of Hannibal has some company in its careful chronicling of the author’s early years. Author and journalist Ron Powers’s Dangerous Waters: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark...

... to return home in a month or two entirely restored. (He died in late April of that year.) Copious notes in both articles provide helpful information about correspondents and contexts. Margaret McMillen s Jane Clemens, Slavery, and Abolitionists in Missouri (Mark Twain Journal [MTJ] 58, ii: 98 121...

.... Clemens (Calif.) is one of the most ambitious biographies ever undertaken on Twain, and its comprehensiveness (and its index) will prove quite valu- able to the working scholar. The unfortunate journalist John Henry Riley, a minor figure often overlooked by biographers, is present in these pages...

... of them. The latest is a missive of 26 January 1870 to lecture agent James Redpath, transcribed by Carl Pracht and Dean Shackelford in ‘‘ ‘I prefer to be sued if it would not discommode you too much’: A Lost Samuel Clemens Letter’’ (MissQ 53: 265–67). Twain’s closing testifies to his mood: ‘‘Yrs...

... the reader of Samuel Clemens’s age at the time the missive was written. As is 86 Mark Twain customary in these volumes, the unstinting annotations, infallible genea- logical charts, and generous appendixes are detailed and inclusive. Over the course...

..., , , Clark, Robert, Crèvocoeur, J. Hector Saint-John de, Clark, Septima, Crittenden, John J., Clark, Susan, Cronenberg, David, Clarke, Kenny, Cronin, Justin, Clay, Henry, , Crosby, Bing, , Cleaver, Eldridge, , Crothers, Rachel, , , , Clemens, Henry, Crouse, Russel, Clemens, Jean, Cruz, Angie, Clemens...

... undertaking equivalent editions of famous authors’ famous works. At the very least they should first read this illuminating essay. ii  Biographical Studies Forrest G. Robinson’s The Author-Cat: Clemens’s Life in Fiction (Ford- ham) has as its frontispiece a photograph of Mark Twain, cigar...

... the polarized opinions on the novel. ii  Biographical Studies After the spate of book-length biographies of the past few years, atten- tion has turned to biographical considerations of more limited aspects of Samuel Clemens’s life. The lone book this year is Steve Courtney’s lavishly illustrated...

... Craft, Ellen, 445–46, 465 Clarke, Peter, 289 Craft, William, 445–46 Clarke, Sarah, 18 Crafts, Hannah, 506 Clarke, William Hull, 15 Cranch, Christopher Pearse, 8 Clemens, Clara, 76, 79–80 Crane, Hart, 166, 343–44, 508 Clemens, Jean, 76...

... introductions are both engag- ing and succinct. He does not include Bret Harte among the 20 authors in The Sagebrush Anthology, an omission that would have earned Mark Twain’s fervent praise. Michael H. Marleau, “ ‘There is a Rumor on the Streets’: Some Early Items from Sam Clemens, Local Editor...