Mark Twain, Journalism, & The Search for Genus Americanus with Loren Ghiglione, Alyssa Karas, & Dan Tham

Apple | Spotify | Google | Stitcher | TuneIn | CastBox | ListenNotes In 2011, a Northwestern journalism professor invited two graduating students to join him for a three-month road trip. They loosely followed the path set by Mark Twain and it took them to 38 states, covering over 14,000 miles. Interviewing other journalists, scholars, immigrants, nomads, and many others, they were looking for what John Steinbeck had called Genus Americanus, or “what was uniquely American about Americans.” They reported their trip […]

The Apocryphal Twain: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed. If you do, you’re misinformed.”

There is perhaps no greater testament to Twain’s lasting reputation than the habitual misattribution of miscellaneous wit and wisdom to his name. The circulation of such apocryphal aphorisms was common enough in the 20th century. It has only increased with the popularization of digital media. The most common question addressed to the Center for Mark Twain Studies is some variety of “Did he really say that?” Whenever possible, we track […]