The typewriter that kept coming back
Reportedly, Mark Twain claimed to be the first author to use the typewriter, and his entire manuscript for Life on the Mississippi was submitted to the publisher in typeface. But, despite his… Read more »
People, return your damn books to the library, maybe within 25 years? No? Is that too much to ask?
Step 1: Discover that one of your parents lazily never returned a book at the local library. Step 2: Casually toss the book in the library’s book drop. Step 3: Achieve… Read more »
We don’t necessarily agree with Mark Twain’s writing advice
According to Mark Twain, master of satiric commentary and famed writer of boyhood adventures like Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the key to writing a great novel… Read more »
Bill Murray will continue to live his best life by reciting Walt Whitman in a Greek amphitheatre
Join me now as we journey through the mists of time to 1979. A long, hot summer is in full, ahem, swing. Caddyshack, the cult screwball golfing comedy, is being filmed. It’s… Read more »
A Minnesota school will no longer assign all students to read Mockingbird and Huck Finn
While Florida school administrators are still questioning the validity of science textbooks, a school district in Duluth, Minnesota is having a more fruitful and important conversation about literature’s relevance in changing times. For… Read more »
If books really make us kinder, better people, then why am I, an enthusiastic reader, so upset all the time?
A lot of ink has been spilled on studies reporting the positive effects of reading fiction. And the news of these groundbreaking studies and their value-of-fiction-affirming results is reported again… Read more »
Never before published Mark Twain fairy tale to be published by Doubleday
A new story by beloved American writer (and Melville House author) Mark Twain, his only one intended specifically for children, will be published by Doubleday on September 26, 2017, the 150th… Read more »
The Art of the Novella Challenge 43: The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
Title: The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg Author: Mark Twain First published: 1899 Page count: 84 First line: It was many years ago. The man that corrupted Hadleyburg is, to all… Read more »
Charles Dickens just gave us the “Rosetta Stone of Victorian literature”
Many of us in the book trade are experiencing burnout this week on the topic of previously “lost” works by iconic authors. Which is unfortunate, because Lazarus books are one… Read more »
New collection of Mark Twain writings uncovered UPDATE: Or maybe not quite…
A trove of writings by Mark Twain has been discovered by scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, Janie Har reports for the Associated Press. The prolific author lived for… Read more »