Mark Twain's legacy is an extensive canon of writings that includes some of the most widely read, staged, debated, reinterpreted, and filmed works ever. This introductory critical study helps students and general readers appreciate the myriad perspectives of the man, his life, and his contributions to American literature. A fresh biographical account traces Twain's colorful life through his varied careers and adventures, to his rise to national prominence as a writer of short stories, to the creation of masterpieces like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Also examined are the...

This first annotated guide devoted entirely to American humor magazines and periodicals provides a comprehensive survey of a genre that has both enriched and reflected American mores, popular culture, and literature for over two hundred years. It offers analytical essays, bibliographies, and historical information on nearly three hundred of the most important individual publications, as well as extensive listings of rare periodicals about which very little is presently known.