On Mark Twain: The Best from American Literature ed. by Louis J. Budd, Edwin H. Cady (review)

152 Western American Literature biographies of the interviewer or author if available and noteworthy, but they do not intrude with criticism of the article or the subject. Those who have been frustrated by the codicil in Cather’swill that forbids publication or direct quotation from her letters will welcome this oblique look at the private Cather. Her physical appearance (supported by inclusion of a number of published portraits), mannerisms, voice and daily routine—especi­ ally her writing schedule and her love of the art of cooking—come through vividly in the interviews she gave after her reputation was established so that the country-girl-turned-writer angle could be abandoned, but before she had gained the Eminent Author status that obligated an interviewer to focus on her literary career. Especially memorable isan interview byOmahan Eva Mahoney in 1921. The collection offers no sensational revelations but rather a series of windows, rather like the Dutch window scene Cather herself was fond of using as an illustration, into Cather’s personal and professional world. Where biog­ raphers have offered us one or two details to support a passing point, Bohlke’s collection provides a fuller picture, due in part to repetition in the sources, but also to the luxury of quoting a source in full. Scholars and casual readers of Cather alike will welcome this last legacy from the careful scholarship of Rev. Bohlke. DIANE D. QUANTIC Wichita State University On Mark Twain: The Best from American Literature. Edited by Louis J. Budd and Edwin H. Cady. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987. 312 pages, $33.50.) This volume is the second of eight to be published in the “Best From American Literature” series. The Whitman volume was issued by Duke Uni­ versity Press in 1987; others to follow will be on Melville, Dickinson, Cather and Faulkner, with two volumes under the titles The Frontier Myth and The Transcendentalists, making a total of eight volumes. The essays have been selected by scholars who have served on the editorial board of the journal for many years. The selections are the most enduring work still useful for the study and teaching of important literary figures, or of an intellectual movement, motif, or genre. They represent the full range of thought from the scholarship that created the discipline and upon which much of the current work rests. The articles in each volume are presented in the order of their first appearance in American Literature, and each opens a fresh line of inquiry, establishes a fresh perspective on a familiar topic, or settles a question that engaged the interest of experts. The nineteen writers of the essays in this vol­ ume are Mark Twain scholars, including Hyatt Howe Waggoner, Gladys Reviews 153 Carmen Bellamy, Dixon Wecter (spelled Wechter on the dust jacket), Leo Marx, John S. Tuckey, Hamlin L. Hill, and others. There are many collections of essays on the writings of Mark Twain. A recent one is New Essays on Huckleberry Finn (1985), edited by Louis J. Budd, a volume in the American Novel Series; another is Critical Essays on Mark Twain: 1910-1980 (1983), edited by Louis J. Budd, in the “Critical Essays in American Literature” Series. An earlier Prentice-Hall collection on Mark Twain’s work is still available. One wonders how good the market is for all of these collections, but perhaps the stellar reputations of Budd and Cady, whose editing of American Litera­ ture is commendable, will sell the volumes. The journal continues to publish the best essays in the discipline, concentrating upon writers from all regions of the nation. Today’s critics and readers may find some of the essays “outdated,” for the “older articles could benefit now from a minor revision, but the compilers have decided to reprint all of them exactly as they first appeared. In their time they met the standards of first-class research and judgment” (14). The complete series will be valuable for undergraduate libraries. DORYS CROW GROVER East Texas State University Frank Norris: Collected Letters. Edited by Jesse S. Crisler. (San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1986. 238 pages, $85 limited edition.) Frank Norris scholars have something that the Willa Cather ones do...