Editing Mark Twain (section)

==Writing==
===Overview===
Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse, but he became a chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies, and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, Twain combined rich humor, sturdy narrative, and social criticism in ''Huckleberry Finn''. He was a master of rendering [[colloquialism|colloquial speech]] and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language.

Many of Twain's works have been suppressed at times for various reasons. The ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the word "[[nigger]]",<ref>{{Cite web| last = Friedman| first = Matt| title = New Jersey lawmakers want schools to stop teaching 'Huckleberry Finn'| work = Politico PRO| date = March 21, 2019| access-date = October 7, 2019| url = https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2019/03/21/new-jersey-lawmakers-want-schools-to-stop-teaching-huckleberry-finn-924748| archive-date = July 28, 2019| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190728040601/https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2019/03/21/new-jersey-lawmakers-want-schools-to-stop-teaching-huckleberry-finn-924748| url-status = live}}</ref> a slur commonly used for [[Black people]] in the nineteenth century.

A complete bibliography of Twain's works is nearly impossible to compile because of the vast number of pieces he wrote (often in obscure newspapers) and his use of several different pen names. Additionally, a large portion of Twain's speeches and lectures have been lost or were not recorded; thus, the compilation of his works is an ongoing process. Researchers have rediscovered published material as recently as 1995 and 2015.<ref name="c-a-kirk" /><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/04/mark-twain-cache-uncovered-berkeley|title=Mark Twain stories, 150 years old, uncovered by Berkeley scholars|author=Nicky Woolf|newspaper=the Guardian|date=May 4, 2015|access-date=December 12, 2016|archive-date=December 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161207053914/https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/04/mark-twain-cache-uncovered-berkeley|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Early journalism and travelogues===
Twain was writing for the Virginia City newspaper the ''[[Territorial Enterprise]]'' in 1863 when he met lawyer [[Thomas Fitch (politician)|Tom Fitch]], editor of the competing newspaper ''Virginia Daily Union'' and known as the "silver-tongued orator of the Pacific".<ref name=baskin>{{Cite book | last1 = Baskin | first1 = R. N. (Robert Newton) | last2 = Madsen | first2 = Brigham D. | title = Reminiscences of early Utah : with, Reply to certain statements by O. F. Whitne | year = 2006 | publisher = Signature Books | location = Salt Lake City | isbn = 978-1-56085-193-6 | page = 281 }}</ref>{{rp|51}} Twain credited Fitch with giving him his "first really profitable lesson" in writing. "When I first began to lecture, and in my earlier writings," Twain later commented, "my sole idea was to make comic capital out of everything I saw and heard."<ref name=henderson>{{cite book |last=Henderson |first=Archibald |year=1912 |title=Mark Twain |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/mtwphotoalvin00hendrich |chapter=The Humorist |page=[https://archive.org/details/mtwphotoalvin00hendrich/page/99 99] |publisher=Frederick A. Stokes Company |location=New York}}</ref> In 1866, he presented his lecture on the Sandwich Islands to a crowd in Washoe City, Nevada.<ref>{{cite book |title=Twain in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates |editor= Gary Scharnhorst |page=290 |publisher= University of Iowa Press |edition= first |date= 2010 |isbn= 978-1-58729-914-8}}</ref><ref name=dequille>{{cite web |url=http://www.nevadaobserver.com/Reading%20Room%20Documents/reporting_with_mark_twain_1893.htm |title=Reporting With Mark Twain |first1=Dan |last1=DeQuille |first2=Mark |last2=Twain |publisher=The Californian Illustrated Magazine |date=July 1893 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511113924/http://www.nevadaobserver.com/Reading%20Room%20Documents/reporting_with_mark_twain_1893.htm |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref> Afterwards, Fitch told him:
<blockquote>Clemens, your lecture was magnificent. It was eloquent, moving, sincere. Never in my entire life have I listened to such a magnificent piece of descriptive narration. But you committed one unpardonable sin&nbsp;– the unpardonable sin. It is a sin you must never commit again. You closed a most eloquent description, by which you had keyed your audience up to a pitch of the intensest interest, with a piece of atrocious anti-climax which nullified all the really fine effect you had produced.<ref name=henderson/></blockquote>

[[File:Mark Twain Cabin Exterior MVC-082X.jpg|thumb|left|Cabin where Twain wrote "Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", Jackass Hill, [[Tuolumne County, California|Tuolumne County]]. Click on [[:File:Mark Twain Cabin Marker (Close-up) MVC-068X.jpg|historical marker]] and [[:File:Mark Twain Cabin Interior MVC-073X.jpg|interior view]].]]
It was in these days that Twain became a writer of the [[Sagebrush School]]; he was known later as its most famous member.<ref name="unr.edu2009">{{cite web|url=http://knowledgecenter.unr.edu/libraries/support/writers_hof/sagebrushschool.html|title=The Sagebrush School Nevada Writers Hall of Fame 2009|date=October 28, 2009|publisher=[[University of Nevada, Reno]]|access-date=February 26, 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140104204538/http://knowledgecenter.unr.edu/libraries/support/writers_hof/sagebrushschool.html|archive-date=January 4, 2014}}</ref> Twain's first important work was "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," published in the ''[[New York Saturday Press]]'' on November 18, 1865. After a burst of popularity, the ''[[Sacramento Union]]'' commissioned him to write letters about his travel experiences. The first journey that Twain took for this job was to ride the steamer ''Ajax'' on its maiden voyage to the [[Hawaiian Islands|Sandwich Islands]] (Hawaii). All the while, he was writing letters to the newspaper that were meant for publishing, chronicling his experiences with humor. These letters proved to be the genesis to Twain's work with the San Francisco ''[[The Daily Alta California|Alta California]]'' newspaper, which designated him a traveling correspondent for a trip from San Francisco to New York City via the [[Panama Canal|Panama isthmus]].

On June 8, 1867, Twain set sail on the pleasure cruiser ''Quaker City'' for five months, and this trip resulted in ''[[The Innocents Abroad|The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims' Progress]]''. <!---hiding this quotation, as it serves no purpose here: {{quote|This book is a record of a pleasure trip. If it were a record of a solemn scientific expedition it would have about it the gravity, that profundity, and that impressive incomprehensibility which are so proper to works of that kind, and withal so attractive. Yet notwithstanding it is only a record of a picnic, it has a purpose, which is, to suggest to the reader how he would be likely to see Europe and the East if he looked at them with his own eyes instead of the eyes of those who traveled in those countries before him. I make small pretense of showing anyone how he ought to look at objects of interest beyond the sea&nbsp;– other books do that, and therefore, even if I were competent to do it, there is no need.}}---> In 1872, he published his second piece of travel literature, ''Roughing It'', as an account of his journey from Missouri to Nevada, his subsequent life in the [[Western United States|American West]], and his visit to Hawaii. The book lampoons American and Western society in the same way that ''Innocents'' critiqued the various countries of Europe and the Middle East. Twain's next work was ''[[The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today]]'', his [[debut novel|first attempt at writing a novel]]. The book, written with Twain's neighbor [[Charles Dudley Warner]], is also his only collaboration.

Twain's next work drew on his experiences on the Mississippi River. ''[[Old Times on the Mississippi]]'' was a series of sketches published in the ''[[Atlantic Monthly]]'' in 1875 featuring his disillusionment with [[Romanticism]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=YaODPFP-1AQC&pg=PA29 Reading the American Novel 1865–1914] G. R. Thompson; John Wiley & Sons,  2012; 462 pages; p. 29</ref> ''Old Times'' eventually became the starting point for ''Life on the Mississippi''.

===''Tom Sawyer'' and ''Huckleberry Finn''===
Twain's next major publication was ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'', which draws on his youth in Hannibal. [[Tom Sawyer]] was modeled on Twain as a child, with traces of schoolmates John Briggs and Will Bowen.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Graysmith |first=Robert |date=2012 |title=The Adventures of the Real Tom Sawyer |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-adventures-of-the-real-tom-sawyer-35894722/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en |archive-date=February 25, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200225005659/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-adventures-of-the-real-tom-sawyer-35894722/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoeltje |first=Hubert H. |date=1954 |title=When Mark Twain Spoke in Portland |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20612133 |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=73–81 |jstor=20612133 |issn=0030-4727 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605042934/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20612133 |url-status=live }}</ref> The book also introduces Huckleberry Finn in a supporting role, based on Twain's boyhood friend Tom Blankenship.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lorch |first=Fred W. |date=1940 |title=A Note on Tom Blankenship (Huckleberry Finn) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2921035 |journal=American Literature |volume=12 |issue=3 |pages=351–353 |jstor=2921035 |issn=0002-9831 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605042933/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2921035 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''[[The Prince and the Pauper]]'' was not as well received, despite a [[Plot (narrative)|storyline]] that is common in film and literature today. The book tells the story of two boys born on the same day who are physically identical, acting as a social commentary as the prince and pauper switch places. Twain had started ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (which he consistently had problems completing)<ref>{{cite book | last = Powers | first = Ron | author-link = Ron Powers | title = Mark Twain: A Life | publisher = Free Press | year = 2005 | location = New York | pages = [https://archive.org/details/marktwainlife00powe_0/page/471 471–473] | isbn = 978-0-7432-4899-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/marktwainlife00powe_0/page/471 }}</ref> and had completed his travel book ''[[A Tramp Abroad]]'', which describes his travels through central and southern Europe.

Twain's next major published work was the ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', which confirmed him as a noteworthy American writer. Some have called it the first Great American Novel, and the book has become required reading in many schools throughout the United States. ''Huckleberry Finn'' was an offshoot from ''Tom Sawyer'' and had a more serious tone than its predecessor. Four hundred manuscript pages were written in mid-1876, right after the publication of ''Tom Sawyer''. The last fifth of ''Huckleberry Finn'' is subject to much controversy. Some say that Twain experienced a "failure of nerve," as critic [[Leo Marx]] puts it. [[Ernest Hemingway]] once said of ''Huckleberry Finn'':

<blockquote>If you read it, you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating.</blockquote>

Hemingway also wrote in the same essay:

<blockquote>All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ''Huckleberry Finn''.<ref>From Chapter 1 of ''[[Green Hills of Africa]]''</ref></blockquote>

Near the completion of ''Huckleberry Finn'', Twain wrote ''Life on the Mississippi'', which is said to have heavily influenced the novel.<ref name="c-a-kirk"/> The travel work recounts Twain's memories and new experiences after a 22-year absence from the Mississippi River. In it, he also explains that "Mark Twain" was the call made when the boat was in safe water, indicating a depth of two (or [[wikt:twain|twain]]) [[fathom]]s ({{convert|12|ft|m|disp=or}}).

McDowell's cave—now known as [[Mark Twain Cave]] in Hannibal, Missouri, and frequently mentioned in Twain's book ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer''—has "Sam Clemens", Twain's real name, engraved on the wall by Twain himself.<ref>{{Cite web|author=Amanda Jackson|date=September 27, 2019|title=After decades of searching, Mark Twain's signature was found inside a famous cave|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/26/us/mark-twain-clemens-signature-cave-found-trnd/index.html|access-date=March 5, 2021|website=CNN|language=en}}</ref>

===Later writing===
Twain produced President [[Ulysses S. Grant]]'s ''[[Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant|Memoirs]]'' through his fledgling publishing house, [[Charles L. Webster and Company]], which he co-owned with [[Charles L. Webster]], his nephew by marriage.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/p_twain.html |title=American Experience&nbsp;– People & Events: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910 |publisher=PBS |access-date=November 28, 2007 |archive-date=June 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090606185124/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/grant/peopleevents/p_twain.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

At this time, Twain also wrote "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" for ''[[The Century Magazine]]''.<ref>Reprinted in Benjamin Griffin, ed., ''Mark Twain's Civil War''.</ref> This piece detailed his two-week stint in a [[Confederate army|Confederate militia]] during the [[United States Civil War|Civil War]]. Twain next focused on ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', written with the same historical fiction style as ''The Prince and the Pauper''. ''A Connecticut Yankee'' shows the absurdities of political and social norms by setting them in the court of [[King Arthur]]. The book was started in December 1885, then shelved a few months later until the summer of 1887, and eventually finished in the spring of 1889.<ref>{{Citation |last=Scharnhorst |first=Gary |title=Biography |date=2020 |work=Mark Twain in Context |pages=3–13 |editor-last=Bird |editor-first=John |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/9781108617208%23CN-bp-1/type/book_part |access-date=2024-06-05 |edition=1st|publisher=Cambridge University Press |doi=10.1017/9781108617208.003 |isbn=978-1-108-61720-8}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Davis |first=John H. |date=2007 |title=Cowboys and Indians in King Arthur's Court: Hank Morgan's Version of Manifest Destiny in Mark Twain's "Connecticut Yankee" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41561754 |journal=The Mark Twain Annual |issue=5 |pages=83–92 |jstor=41561754 |issn=1553-0981}}</ref>

Twain's next large-scale work was ''[[Pudd'nhead Wilson]]'', which he wrote rapidly, as he was desperately trying to stave off bankruptcy. From November 12 to December 14, 1893, Twain wrote 60,000 words for the novel.<ref name="c-a-kirk"/> Critics{{who|date=March 2017}} have pointed to this rushed completion as the cause of the novel's rough organization and constant disruption of the plot. This novel also contains the tale of two boys born on the same day who switch positions in life, like ''The Prince and the Pauper''. It was first published serially in ''Century Magazine'', and when it was finally published in book form, ''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' appeared as the main title; however, the "subtitles" make the entire title read ''The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of The Extraordinary Twins''.<ref name="c-a-kirk"/>

Twain's next venture was a work of straight fiction that he called ''[[Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc]]'' and dedicated to his wife. Twain said a year before his death that this was the work that he was most proud of, despite the criticism that he received for it, writing: " I like ''Joan of Arc'' best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Foster |first=David |date=2015 |title=On the Theme of Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/marktwaij.13.1.0043 |journal=The Mark Twain Annual |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=43–62 |doi=10.5325/marktwaij.13.1.0043 |jstor=10.5325/marktwaij.13.1.0043 |issn=1553-0981 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605051627/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/marktwaij.13.1.0043 |url-status=live }}</ref> The book had been a dream of Twain's since childhood, and he claimed that he had found a manuscript detailing the life of [[Joan of Arc]] when Twain was an adolescent.<ref name="c-a-kirk" /> It was written at the time of his bankruptcy and Twain was convinced that it would save his financial disposition. Twain specifically insisted it to be an anonymous publication so that readers would take it as a serious historical account.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt7zw24j |title=Mark Twain's Correspondence with Henry Huttleston Rogers, 1893–1909 |date=1969 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-01467-1 |edition=1st |pages=132–230 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt7zw24j |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605051631/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt7zw24j |url-status=live }}</ref> With the help of his financial adviser Henry Huttleston Rogers, it was published anonymously in serials in the ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'' in 1895.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knighton |first=Mary A. |date=2017 |title=Hearing Secret Voices in Twain's "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44504996 |journal=Mark Twain Journal |volume=55 |issue=1/2 |pages=75–99 |jstor=44504996 |issn=0025-3499 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605052951/https://www.jstor.org/stable/44504996 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morris |first=Linda A. |date=2019 |title=What is "Personal" about Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc? |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/amerlitereal.51.2.0097 |journal=American Literary Realism |volume=51 |issue=2 |pages=97–110 |doi=10.5406/amerlitereal.51.2.0097 |jstor=10.5406/amerlitereal.51.2.0097 |issn=1540-3084 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605052949/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/amerlitereal.51.2.0097 |url-status=live }}</ref>

To pay the bills and keep his business projects afloat, Twain had begun to write articles and commentary furiously, with diminishing returns, but it was not enough. He filed for bankruptcy in 1894. During this time of dire financial straits, Twain published several literary reviews in newspapers to help make ends meet. He famously derided [[James Fenimore Cooper]] in his article detailing Cooper's "[[Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses|Literary Offenses]]". Twain became an extremely outspoken critic of other authors and other critics; he suggested that, before praising Cooper's work, [[Thomas Lounsbury]], [[Brander Matthews]], and [[Wilkie Collins]] "ought to have read some of it".<ref name=offenses>Twain, Mark. [http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090819074655/http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/rissetto/offense.html |date=August 19, 2009 }}. From Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches and Essays, from 1891 to 1910. Edited by Louis J. Budd. New York: Library of America, 1992.</ref>

[[George Eliot]], [[Jane Austen]], and [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] also fell under Twain's attack during this time period, beginning around 1890 and continuing until his death.<ref name=Feinstein>{{cite journal|last=Feinstein|first=George W|title=Twain as Forerunner of Tooth-and-Claw Criticism|journal=Modern Language Notes|date=January 1948|volume=63|issue=1|pages=49–50|jstor=2908644|doi=10.2307/2908644}}</ref> Twain outlines what he considers to be "quality writing" in several letters and essays, in addition to providing a source for the "tooth and claw" style of literary criticism. Twain places emphasis on concision, utility of word choice, and realism; he complains, for example, that Cooper's ''[[Deerslayer]]'' purports to be realistic but has several shortcomings. Ironically, several of Twain's own works were later criticized for lack of continuity (''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'') and organization (''Pudd'nhead Wilson'').<ref>{{Cite journal |last=von Frank |first=Albert J. |date=1979 |title=Huck Finn and the Flight from Maturity |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/440345 |journal=Studies in American Fiction |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1353/saf.1979.0002 |issn=2158-5806 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 3, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603082215/http://muse.jhu.edu/article/440345 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Reid |first=Rebecca |date=2010-09-08 |title=Mark Twain's Mississippi Novels Book Review |url=https://reviews.rebeccareid.com/mark-twains-mississippi-novels/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=Rebecca Reads |language=en-US |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605052951/https://reviews.rebeccareid.com/mark-twains-mississippi-novels/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Twain's wife died in 1904 while the couple were staying at the [[Villa di Quarto]] in [[Florence]]. After some time had passed, he published some works that his wife, his ''de facto'' editor and censor throughout her married life, had looked down upon. ''[[The Mysterious Stranger]]'' is perhaps the best known, depicting various visits of [[Satan]] to earth. This particular work was not published in Twain's lifetime. His manuscripts included three versions, written between 1897 and 1905: the so-called Hannibal, Eseldorf, and Print Shop versions. The resulting confusion led to extensive publication of a jumbled version, and only recently{{when|date=October 2024}} have the original versions become available as Twain wrote them.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Twain |first=Mark |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.13083385 |title=Mark Twain's Mysterious Stranger Manuscripts |date=2024 |volume=6 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-41281-1 |editor-last=Gibson |editor-first=William M. |doi=10.2307/jj.13083385 |access-date=June 7, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605052951/https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.13083385 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=Michael J. |date=2022-10-03 |title=No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger : Mark Twain's critique of progressive era meritocracy |journal=Textual Practice |language=en |volume=36 |issue=10 |pages=1665–1688 |doi=10.1080/0950236X.2021.1972037 |issn=0950-236X |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Martin |first=Michael S. |date=2011 |title=Centenary Reflections on Mark Twain's No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/464492 |journal=Studies in the Novel |language=en |volume=43 |issue=4 |pages=510–512 |doi=10.1353/sdn.2011.0054 |issn=1934-1512}}</ref>

Twain's last work was [[Mark Twain's Autobiography|his autobiography]], which he dictated and thought would be most entertaining if he went off on whims and tangents in non-chronological order. Some archivists and compilers have rearranged the biography into a more conventional form, thereby eliminating some of Twain's humor and the flow of the book. The first volume of the autobiography, over 736&nbsp;pages, was published by the University of California in November 2010, 100&nbsp;years after his death, as Twain wished.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/after-keeping-us-waiting-for-a-century-mark-twain-will-finally-reveal-all-1980695.html "After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all" The Independent 23 May 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170722155902/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/after-keeping-us-waiting-for-a-century-mark-twain-will-finally-reveal-all-1980695.html |date=July 22, 2017 }} Retrieved May 29, 2010</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/books/10twain.html?ref=arts "Dead for a Century, He's Ready to Say What He Really Meant" The New York Times 9 July 2010] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119152325/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/10/books/10twain.html?ref=arts |date=January 19, 2017 }}. Retrieved July 9, 2010.</ref> It soon became an unexpected best-seller,<ref>{{cite news | newspaper = NY Times | date = November 26, 2010 | title = Mark Twain's Big Book | url = https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/opinion/27sat4.html | quote = an enormous hit, apparently much to the surprise of its publisher | access-date = November 27, 2010 | archive-date = May 13, 2011 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110513025816/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/27/opinion/27sat4.html | url-status = live }}</ref> making Twain one of a very few authors publishing new best-selling volumes in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

===Censorship===
Twain's works have been subjected to censorship efforts. According to Stuart (2013), "Leading these banning campaigns, generally, were religious organizations or individuals in positions of influence – not so much working librarians, who had been instilled with that American "library spirit" which honored intellectual freedom (within bounds of course)". In 1905, the [[Brooklyn Public Library]] banned both ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' and ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' from the children's department because of their language.<ref>Murray, Stuart A. P. ''The Library: An Illustrated History'', New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2012, p. 189.</ref>

===Publishers===
For two decades, Twain lived in a house in [[Hartford, Connecticut]] (1871–1891), and the American Publishing Company in that city published the first edition of several of his books.<ref name=publ>{{cite web |last= Golden |first= Audrey |title= Who Were Mark Twain's Publishers? |website= BooksTellYouWhy.com |date= November 30, 2019 |url= https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/who-were-mark-twains-publishers |access-date= August 29, 2022 |archive-date= August 29, 2022 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20220829160832/https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/who-were-mark-twains-publishers |url-status= live }}</ref> The same can be said about a number of [[New York City|New York]]-based companies, such as [[Harper & Brothers]] and his nephew's Charles L. Webster and Company.<ref name=publ/> Other memorable editions were created by The Ash Ranch Press of [[San Diego]] and [[Barry Moser]]'s Pennyroyal Press.<ref name=publ/>