Originally posted by: Susan K. Harris on April 18, 2017 In his 1903 essay “Why Not Abolish It?,” Mark Twain argues that the age of consent for extramarital relations should be abolished for women. Twain’s underlying premises are that young women are not responsible...
Originally posted by: Christopher Gilbert on July 5, 2021A certain comic spirit, and perhaps more specifically a comic spirit of caricature, has long been caught up with U.S. cultural politics. From the “Join, or Die” provocation that appeared along with Benjamin...
Originally posted by: Ellen Gruber Garvey on October 28, 2020EDITOR’S NOTE: For more on the intersections of U.S. literature, politics, & 19th-century scrapbooks, please check out Prof. Garvey’s blog, Scrapbook History.As the November 3, 2020 election approaches,...
Originally posted by: Lubna Alzaroo on August 19th, 2021EDITOR’S NOTE: For more on the intersections of U.S. literature, politics, & 19th-century scrapbooks, please check out Prof. Garvey’s blog, Scrapbook History.The fight for US women’s right to vote went on...
Originally posted by: Shelley Fisher Fishkin on September 14, 2017 In literally thousands of extraordinary performances of his groundbreaking show, “Mark Twain Tonight!,” Hal Holbrook has brought Mark Twain alive for millions of people in the U.S. and around the world...
Originally posted by: Shelley Fisher Fishkin on February 21, 20192018 was the first year since 1954 that Hal Holbrook (who retired in September of 2017) did not perform “Mark Twain Tonight!” I compiled this video to honor him on his 94th Birthday (February 17th) and...
Originally posted by: Kaine Ezell, on September 21, 2017 With the upcoming premier of Star Trek: Discovery (CBS) on September 24, we thought it might be fun to look back at Mark Twain’s first appearance in the Star Trek universe. Since the original Star Trek aired in...
Originally posted by: Dwayne Eutsey on June 26, 2019 Although it’s been almost a century since Mark Twain’s death, his staying power as an American icon endures. There are many reasons for his iconic status: his stories (especially those that keep getting banned),...
Originally posted by: Dwayne Eutsey on December 17, 2021During a presentation I gave at the recent CMTS symposium celebrating the 150th anniversary of Roughing It, I made an offhand comment linking Mark Twain with The Big Lebowski. The link is a solid one. Joel Coen,...
Originally posted by: Dwayne Eutsey on February 21, 2017“Fake news” isn’t really anything new. Robert Darnton points out in a recent essay in the New York Review of Books that “the concoction of alternative facts is hardly rare, and the equivalent of today’s...