Mark Twain in Context ed. by John Bird (review)

In her essay "Cosmopolitanism," Ann M. Ryan explains, "Choose a spot on the map or on the globe and you will find Mark Twain, or at least some version of him." She notes his "chameleon-like" ability to adapt himself to the various contexts he engaged in, a move that gestures not only toward modernity but "even postmodernity." After all, she argues, "Mark Twain" is "an artistic performance, a role self-consciously crafted out of disparate parts and places" (224). Ryan's essay, one of the most compelling in Mark Twain in Context, embodies the strength of the collection John Bird has put together: with sections on the writer's life, his literary, historical, and cultural contexts, his reception and criticism, and his historical, creative, and cultural legacies, it provides a fine foundation for the wide-ranging world of Mark Twain studies.

Part 1, "Life," which includes the chapters "Biography," "Reading," "Autobiography," and "Biographies," illustrates further how the collection consistently frames Mark Twain in larger contexts, both as an individual and in relation to surrounding conversations and texts. Alan Gribben's "Reading" is a highlight. Gribben outlines the results of his five-decade project of reconstructing the "library and reading of Samuel L. Clemens and his family" (14). Paying attention to not only the books Clemens owned but those he had access to (i.e., his family members' collections), he shows Clemens to be an "omnivorous and unpredictable devourer of the printed world" and points to areas that "merit more attention" from scholars, including books about outlaws as subjects (23, 21).

Part 2, "Literary Contexts," ambitious in its scope, looks at how literary movements of his time shaped Clemens as Mark Twain, his contributions to them, as well as his engagement in publishing and his work as a lecturer. Here David E. E. Sloane's "Literary Comedians" stands out, especially for readers more likely to think of him in the context of Southwest humor (adeptly covered in Henry B. Wonham's chapter). Thinking about him alongside this genre shows readers how "he took a vernacular style and varied urban personae which were amalgamated with other elements to complete the tapestry of America's greatest and most representative humorist." "In this fusion," Sloane concludes, "he found his genius" (65). In a similar way, James E. Caron considers how his early periodical writing shaped his voice as he "staked out" a "large zone … between belles-lettres as one boundary and mass popular culture as another" (88). Jeffrey Melton makes a related argument about his travel writing, in which he "achieved a tenuous balance between following form and snubbing it" (93). Especially memorable is Melton's close reading of a scene from Following the Equator: Clemens witnesses a German official striking an Indian servant, which reminds him of a similar scene from his childhood, when he saw a slave being beaten. This moment of insight, connection, and recognition of his privilege and others' suffering "represents the ideal potential of travel itself: the human capacity to learn and be humbled" (98).

Part 3, "Historical and Cultural Contexts," is also ambitious in scope, filled with essays illustrating how, over the course of Clemens's long life and career as Mark Twain, his position on an issue or topic was subject to contradiction and change, exemplified by James S. Leonard's essay on politics and Harold K. Bush's piece on religion. The chapters on Mark Twain and race take similar stances, pointing to places where the author defies easy categorization as progressive or conservative. Here Hsuan L. Hsu's essay is especially illuminating and welcome, as he argues that his writings on the Chinese show his "sympathies … are circumscribed by the politics of class and respectability" (217). Other essays in the section invite new or revised lenses through which to view him. Lawrence Howe's take on business and economics, in which he pushes back on the idea of Clemens as a failed businessman, also includes a delightful reframing of Tom Sawyer's fence...