Editing Mark Twain (section)

===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.