Mark Twain and the Critics, 1891-1910

Over the final twenty years of his life, Mark Twain was an incredibly 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 printed in magazines and newspapers across the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. This selected sample represents the full range of critical opinion, whether favorable or hostile, about Mark Twain's late writings. Sources reflect geographical differences in Twain's contemporary reputation, such as the conflicted responses in the British colonies towards Mark Twain's anti-imperialism and the pious disapproval in the American heartland for his attacks on foreign missions.