On Mark Twain

“This volume on Twain is among the first in a series of critical appraisals of American authors, 'The Best from American Literature,' which reprints articles from the pages of that prestigious journal. . . . This amounts to a fascinating portrait of Samuel Clemens as author/performer/reformer/husband-man and public figure, thereby profiling the evolution of literary opinion and arbitration of an emerging canon. “Overall, this valuable entry in the process of recollecting our past scholarship amounts to a most useful overview of American literary study. More important, the Twain selections represent an acutely balanced chronology of a complex talent. This volume and those following should be invaluable additions to academic collections.”—Choice