EDITOR’S RE: MARKS

Abstract

This issue marks the twentieth anniversary of The Mark Twain Annual! Like many great ideas regarding Mark Twain, the idea for this journal began over drinks and cigars. Although the story of this journal’s genesis has been retold in past issues (volumes 1 and 6), I recall it once more on its twentieth anniversary.In May 2001, at the American Literature Association Conference (ALA), on a balcony in Cambridge, Massachusetts, several members of the Mark Twain Circle gathered to socialize when John Bird openly bemoaned that no academic journal devoted to critical articles on Mark Twain existed. At that moment, the late Michael Kiskis exclaimed, “You’re right!,” turned to Bird and said, “And you’re going to be the editor!” Discussions about what the journal’s mission would be continued at the Elmira Conference that August (pedagogical essays were added as part of the annual’s mission). In May 2002, at the Circle business meeting, the name of the annual was officially voted on, and Bird was chosen as its inaugural editor, with annual publication to come every fall, starting with the first issue published in 2003.In keeping with its mission, this issue features both critical and pedagogical pieces. Our critical essays begin with Seth Murray’s new take on the oft-neglected “Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven” arguing that it is more than literary miscellany from Twain’s late writings or a caricature of Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s religious sentimentalism; rather it is “a careful meditation on a series of questions—belief, mortality, justice, and the quest for the most humane arrangement of life.” The next two essays offer fresh insights about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Joshua Fagan posits that Connecticut Yankee “should be considered specifically in the context of late-Victorian, fin-de-siècle medievalism, not simply as a reaction against starry-eyed medievalists, but as a work engaging with the medievalist literature and historiography of this period.” As Alan Manning and Nicole Amare’s title states, they explore “Mark Twain’s Early Contribution to Fantasy and Science Fiction and ‘Mormon’ Narratives of Reconciliation.” They illustrate a shared thematic concern over reconciliation through transcendence as seen in the third-way reconciliation motif employed in Connecticut Yankee and The Book of Mormon. Next, Linda Morris examines letters between Susy Clemens and fellow Bryn Mawr classmate Louise Bronwell, her sister Clara, and their mother Livy. Morris’s portrait of Susy in these last six years also provides insights about Samuel Clemens as a father as well as Mark Twain’s writings (after Susy’s death) that challenged traditional gender expectations of the time.The final two essays in this section investigate the ironic and hypocritical public belief in American exceptionalism and patriotism, how Twain exposed it in his later writings, and how he was later appropriated to support it. Megan McNamara traces Twain’s efforts to undermine American exceptionalism during his writing life, focusing on his satirizing of national notions of innocence, manifest destiny, and the hypocritical religious justifications ingrained in the Bible—all employed to promote the ideology of American patriotism. Matt Seybold examines Twain as an “object of propaganda between the United States and the USSR” in the 1950s and 1960s, and reveals an American public still influenced by what he calls, “The Twain Doctrine.”The Mark Twain Annual hasn’t had large pedagogical offerings in a while, so it seems fitting on our twentieth anniversary that we have a pedagogical forum. This forum grew out of the most recent Elmira Conference (August 2022), which featured several flash sessions and panels on teaching Twain in the classroom. The featured essays emerged from the following conference sessions: “Global Contexts and the Changing Mark Twain” (Seema Sharma, Faith Ben-Daniels); “How Twain Might Fit Into an Anti-Racist Pedagogy” (David Sloane); “New Perspectives on Teaching Twain Today” (John Bird). Our forum begins with Seema Sharma’s essay, “Why I Still Teach Mark Twain in the Twenty-first Century Indian Classroom,” in which she addresses the barriers she has encountered and surmounted in teaching Twain. David Sloan provides a thorough and thoughtful approach that teachers can employ to prepare students for the abundant use of the n-word in Huckleberry Finn. It also seems fitting that on the Annual’s twentieth anniversary its first editor, John Bird, offers his reflections of forty years of teaching this great and troubling book. Part of Bird’s essay emphasizes the importance of performing (and modeling it for students) the dialect speech of various characters—this form of “enacting” the text provides a key to fully understanding the novel. Following Bird, Faith Ben-Daniels illustrates how she uses “enactment” to teach Twain’s diaries of Adam and Eve. Students creatively enact various scenes from the diaries, using a combination of their own language with that of the texts, revealing connections to the Ghanian culture’s attitudes toward marriage, misogyny, and human fellowship.To conclude, we tread lightly in using the term “anniversary,” given that Twain felt “mere killing would be too light” a punishment for the person who invented them (Notebook 1896). He jokingly feared that anniversaries turn into milestones that no longer “prove progress” but rather mark “something lost now, not gained.” Such is not the case with The Mark Twain Annual. This anniversary not only marks time, it also proves progress. In the last five years, we have published two special issues; continued to present new approaches to Twain’s work by new scholars, veteran scholars, and international scholars; included more pedagogical pieces; and extended the reach of our book review section by including reviews of Twain’s work within larger edited collections or monographs not dedicated solely to Twain. With each new editorial team comes progress—progress that would be impossible without the superb work of previous editorial teams. It was my honor to have succeeded John Bird, Ann Ryan, and Chad Rohman as the journal’s fourth editor from 2017 to 2023.Now I leave it in the capable hands of well-known Twain scholar Joseph Csicsila, who has been a wonderful associate editor for the past five years. Of course, Joe is no stranger to the Annual—he was its first book review editor and served in the role from 2004 to 2012! In addition, the Annual welcomes its new associate editor, Nathaniel Williams, who has been a superb book review editor during my tenure and who introduced “Brief Reviews” as a regular feature of the Annual. (Thank you, Joe and Nate, for all your good work these past five years!) As Nate steps into his new role to work with Joe, the Annual welcomes Megan McNamara as its new book review editor. Readers of the Annual may be familiar with Megan as she has contributed articles and book reviews for us in the past. Finally, the Annual’s original managing editor, Jim Leonard, has stepped down after twenty years of excellent service. Among many his many contributions, Jim helped develop and secure the current publishing contract we have with Penn State Press. Keeping the managing editor duties in the family, we welcome Jim’s son James Leonard as his replacement. But James is no nepo baby—he has been instrumental in retooling The Mark Twain Circle’s website, in automating Circle memberships, and in helping the Annual make a smooth transition to our new publishing consortium, Scholarly Publishing Collective. Please welcome Joe, Nate, Megan, and James as they lead the Annual toward its next anniversary.