Mark Twain Forum Reviews: “Pudd’nhead Wilson: Manuscript and Revised Versions, with “Those Extraordinary Twins”

Barbara Schmidt reviews the new edition of one of Twain’s most well-known texts

Mark Twain Expected Us To Read His Fan Mail

Mark Twain liked to imagine moments of speaking from beyond the grave. Perhaps the most well-known example is in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as Huck, Joe, and Tom—but mostly Tom—enjoy the melancholic, sweet, and ridiculous gratification of hearing their own funeral sermon from the gallery of the community church. Twain imagined his own postmortem moments, too. Below he interrupted an 1880 letter to Joseph Twitchell to address those he […]

“The White House Funeral” by Mark Twain

To the Editor of The Tribune. I can truly say that this has been the most melancholy day of my life. When I arose this morning & reflected that on this day it was to be given me to see that noble band of patriots, the President & his Cabinet, delivered over to the cold charities of a thankless nation, my heart was ready to break. My brain was flooded […]