At last.

That's a must read.

Wow. How lucky are we to be alive at this moment?

I see there are three volumes. Anybody know when the last one's publication date is?

i always thought we got a very good look at the acerbic Twain in "letters from the earth" .. published around '76 or so .. it'll be interesting to read this new work .. i've been a student of Twain's since college days .. it's nice to see something new come out ...

quote:

Justin Kaplan, author of “Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography,” said in a telephone interview: “One thing that gets Mark Twain going is his rage and resentment. There are a number of passages where he wants to get even, to settle scores with people whom he really despises. He loved invective.”

Should be a hella ride! I can't wait to read these. Although I will ALWAYS be a little pissed at him for his skewering critiques of my beloved Austen. And nearly 100 years past the time when she could have defended herself and sent some delicious barbs back his direction.

Oh I can't wait for this one to come out. I love Mark Twain! For his honesty and his common sense and his sense of irony and last but not least, his humor.

withering heights eh ... [snicker] .. oh noes ..

i laughed and laughed at the way he took fennimore cooper apart .. scathing and deadly ... and funny too ...

quote:

Wry and cranky, droll and ...more pointedly political and willing to play the role of the angry prophet...Whether anguishing over American military interventions abroad or delivering jabs at Wall Street tycoons, this Twain is strikingly contemporary.

Amazingly contemporary. Whether it be outlook, speech patterns, or writing style--why do I get the idea that Jkat is the reincarnation of Mark Twain?

Heh. He's been polishing that apple since he flung his first bull.

His Cooper essay was so deadly that I never wanted to read Cooper -- and was pleasantly surprised when I finally did.

November? Damn, I was hoping I could take it on vacation, although it sounds like it might tip the scales to over fifty lbs.

quote:

Originally posted by UgaBuga:

quote:

Wry and cranky, droll and ...more pointedly political and willing to play the role of the angry prophet...Whether anguishing over American military interventions abroad or delivering jabs at Wall Street tycoons, this Twain is strikingly contemporary.

Amazingly contemporary. Whether it be outlook, speech patterns, or writing style--why do I get the idea that Jkat is the reincarnation of Mark Twain?

I think Jkat channels him, regularly.

Yes, the second and third volumes are said to have the new material but no date given for those? That's what I'd love to get my hands on.

I think anyone who has read more than "Tom Sawyer" and "Life on the Mississippi" knows that's not all ole Mark had to say. We are lucky enough to have all of his volumes published in the early part of the last century...I think it was a rush publishing project to pay off debts. It's a sloppy printing job (some of the pages are upside down or missing). Not leather, not embossed, at first I hated them, now I find them charming...not only for their errors, but most certainly for their content. They were in my husband's family and have been on our shelves for years. Sometimes I will take one down and read it.

After reading "Innocents Abroad" I figured I could forego traveling. Never would I be able to weave through the tombs of Pompeii with as much irreverency or capture the Parthenon in quite the same light as he. I didn't even want to, Who could top such experiences? Perhaps it was he who made me the vicarious, armchair tourist that I am.

Ahhh wit and wisdom.

Peachy

Twain's porn classic. My stepfather had a forbidden volume of this one.

quote:

I think anyone who has read more than "Tom Sawyer" and "Life on the Mississippi" knows that's not all ole Mark had to say. We are lucky enough to have all of his volumes published in the early part of the last century...I think it was a rush publishing project to pay off debts. It's a sloppy printing job (some of the pages are upside down or missing). Not leather, not embossed, at first I hated them, now I find them charming...not only for their errors, but most certainly for their content. They were in my husband's family and have been on our shelves for years. Sometimes I will take one down and read it.

Author's National Edition? With a handwritten printed statement by Mark Twain that these are an authorized set? My set is green with gold lettering. Like these: (while link lasts, EBay auction is about to end)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...em&item=130407651554
http://i.ebayimg.com/21/!Bu(61...GBM!CHlE6fg~~_35.JPG

They published a number of sets between 1910 and 1950 and rarely put on a publishing date. Those shown are like mine and were published in the 1920's.

quote:

Originally posted by TheOldMole:
At last.

It should be interesting. I can understand how Twain would not have liked a chronological autobiography. That would not have fit his style at all imo. As mentioned to have edited out his "passion" on certain subjects was a loss we should benefit from having been restored.

Gee. No conservatives, I see. Are books and book discussions considered trojan horses for liberal propaganda?

A little while ago I read a book about the various upsurges of belief that Shakespeare was actually not written by Shakespeare. I think it was called Will in the World, or something like that. Anyway, Mark Twain was apparently a subscriber to one of those theories.

quote:

Originally posted by Lynn Dee:
A little while ago I read a book about the various upsurges of belief that Shakespeare was actually not written by Shakespeare. I think it was called Will in the World, or something like that. Anyway, Mark Twain was apparently a subscriber to one of those theories.

I am a subscriber to that theory as well but it is not as clear as whether Shakespeare did or did not write the plays. He did write what was performed but they are basically Greek (or Roman) tragedies and those have been performed going back 2,500 years for which there only existed very little written history. Instead those plays were passed down as an oral history.

What is in greater question is whether the stories or even how much of the dialog is entirely his or came from passed down plays still being performed.

But what I think you saw was referring Shakepeare's work to some work of another writer and the similarities. They both could have been drawing from the same plays rather than Shakepeare using the work of the other person.

quote:

I am a subscriber to that theory as well but it is not as clear as whether Shakespeare did or did not write the plays. He did write what was performed but they are basically Greek (or Roman) tragedies and those have been performed going back 2,500 years for which there only existed very little written history. Instead those plays were passed down as an oral history.

This isn't quite the same as saying some other playwright or playwrights actually wrote the plays, is it? Aren't you speaking more to where you believe he took his inspiration or what sources he used?

I suppose I think -- without having really studied this at all -- that it would make sense if some of the plays, or parts of them, were collaborative. I can picture a busy enterprise, show time approaching, changes being scribbled in, etc. Other than that, I think he wrote them. This is not to disagree with what you're saying about what he might have drawn upon.

BTW, the book I read was "Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?" "Will in the World" was a cite therein. These guys can't seem to resist punning on "Will." (Or should I say "punning at will? Haha.)

quote:

Aren't you speaking more to where you believe he took his inspiration or what sources he used?

No, not really. I meant more than just inspiration as in some think much as in whole speeches could have come from the earlier plays.

Such as Hamlet's Soliloquy would be something that may have been passed essentially verbatim down the centuries as it was translated and repeated and continually fine tuned but only slightly until you end up with the fine memorable speech that it is.

In other words it was more Shakepeare's production of Hamlet than something he conceived and wrote from scratch.

Not that it really matters all that much and we may never know unless some earlier written record shows up.

quote:

No, not really. I meant more than just inspiration as in some think much as in whole speeches could have come from the earlier plays.

Such as Hamlet's Soliloquy would be something that may have been passed essentially verbatim down the centuries as it was translated and repeated and continually fine tuned but only slightly until you end up with the fine memorable speech that it is.

In other words it was more Shakepeare's production of Hamlet than something he conceived and wrote from scratch.

Wouldn't you expect if that were the case there'd be some contemporary commentary about that? In fact, was there any?

quote:

Originally posted by BullDoug:

quote:

I think anyone who has read more than "Tom Sawyer" and "Life on the Mississippi" knows that's not all ole Mark had to say. We are lucky enough to have all of his volumes published in the early part of the last century...I think it was a rush publishing project to pay off debts. It's a sloppy printing job (some of the pages are upside down or missing). Not leather, not embossed, at first I hated them, now I find them charming...not only for their errors, but most certainly for their content. They were in my husband's family and have been on our shelves for years. Sometimes I will take one down and read it.

Author's National Edition? With a handwritten printed statement by Mark Twain that these are an authorized set? My set is green with gold lettering. Like these: (while link lasts, EBay auction is about to end)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...em&item=130407651554
http://i.ebayimg.com/21/!Bu(61...GBM!CHlE6fg~~_35.JPG

They published a number of sets between 1910 and 1950 and rarely put on a publishing date. Those shown are like mine and were published in the 1920's.

Gawd... only $75? I'd spring for it.

*CJ

quote:

Originally posted by TheOldMole:
Twain's porn classic. My stepfather had a forbidden volume of this one.

quote:

"Well, Tucker [foreman of the printing shop] and I soaked some handmade linen paper in weak coffee, put it as a wet bundle into a warm room to mildew, dried it to a dampness approved by Tucker and he printed the 'copy' on a hand press. I had special punches cut for such Elizabethan abbreviations as the a, e, o and u, when followed by m or n--and for the (commonly and stupidly pronounced ye).

Proof that genius associates w/ genius.

*CJ

quote:

Originally posted by BullDoug:

quote:

I think anyone who has read more than "Tom Sawyer" and "Life on the Mississippi" knows that's not all ole Mark had to say. We are lucky enough to have all of his volumes published in the early part of the last century...I think it was a rush publishing project to pay off debts. It's a sloppy printing job (some of the pages are upside down or missing). Not leather, not embossed, at first I hated them, now I find them charming...not only for their errors, but most certainly for their content. They were in my husband's family and have been on our shelves for years. Sometimes I will take one down and read it.

Author's National Edition? With a handwritten printed statement by Mark Twain that these are an authorized set? My set is green with gold lettering. Like these: (while link lasts, EBay auction is about to end)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...em&item=130407651554
http://i.ebayimg.com/21/!Bu(61...GBM!CHlE6fg~~_35.JPG

They published a number of sets between 1910 and 1950 and rarely put on a publishing date. Those shown are like mine and were published in the 1920's.

Doug:

Yes, my set looks exactly like that. Green. I have 25...The last few volumes are "other stories and essays." I have to get up on a ladder to check them all......(ugh) but I did get one down. This is what it says....

First page: Author's National Edition
The Writings of MARK TWAIN
(then the vol number and a hallmark)

Second page in Twain's handwriting & signature (obviously printed, not signed):

"This is the authorized Uniform Edition of all my books.
Mark Twain"

Then: THE MAN WHO CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG And Other Essays and Stories by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)

Harper & Brothers Publishers
New York and London

Then:
Copyright, 1898, 1899, and 1901 by THE CENTURY COMPANY

Copyright, 1893 by J. Brisben Walker

Copyright 1890, 1901 and 1902 by Harper & Brothers
Copyright 1898 and 1899 by The Forum Publishing Company
Copyright 1899 by the S. S. McClure Cmopany
Copyright 1803 by Underhill & Nichols
Copyright 1901 by Irving S. Underhill
Copyright 1899 by Samuel L. Clemens

Copyright 1903 by THE AMERICAN PUBLISHING COMPANY
Copyright 1900 by Olivia L. Clemens


(There is a collection of 14 separate stories in this particular volume so I don't know what all those copyrights speak to)

He was still alive in 1903 (didn't die until 1910) but I have read he gave his daughter Olivia Clemens various copyrights to protect his work from creditors.

The ebay set sold for $75 but I have seen them on the Internet for a bit more. Before moving to Frogville I did volunteer work for an Atlanta charity in a thrift shop and loved to work in the book room where I priced books. We got lots of fascinating stuff but it never sold for much.

It seems I remember some volumes saying copyright 1910 or 1911 but I'd hafta get up on the ladder to find out.

At any rate, I treasure them but you can get them on Kindle I bet without needing to devote so much shelf space to them and get up on a ladder and dust them periodically.

We also inherited a 12 volume set of Shakespeare, red leather and gold, that I have given to my DIL a devotee of Shakespeare and a leather set of Poe I'm keeping. The leather stuff is a pain to care for.

In my will, I'm leaving this set to Jkat. I know someone can find him.

Peachy

quote:

Originally posted by The Queen:

quote:

Justin Kaplan, author of “Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography,” said in a telephone interview: “One thing that gets Mark Twain going is his rage and resentment. There are a number of passages where he wants to get even, to settle scores with people whom he really despises. He loved invective.”

Should be a hella ride! I can't wait to read these. Although I will ALWAYS be a little pissed at him for his skewering critiques of my beloved Austen. And nearly 100 years past the time when she could have defended herself and sent some delicious barbs back his direction.

quote:

I haven’t any right to criticise books, and I don’t do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticise Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can’t conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Everytime I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

Anyone else hear an echo of old Huckleberry there? LOL
I'm not sure she would have been able to send any barbs, delicious or otherwise, back in his direction with her skull beat in by means of her own shin bone.