Shelley Fisher Fishkin - The Mark Twain Anthology

This anthology of writers on the life and works of Mark Twain published by The Library of America is ideal for the common reader like me.

There is a lovely piece by Rudyard Kipling on his visit with Twain in 1890. Mark Twain knew Helen Keller, and she write lovingly of her visit with Twain. Twain's patron William Dean Howells weighs in with his praise.

The selections range from the critical to the popular to international comments. There is Leslie Fiedler, Bernard de Voto, and T.S. Eliot's famous introduction to "Huckleberry Finn."

Toni Morrison writes of her admiration for "Huckleberry Finn" and her multiple readings over the years. Norman Mailer wrote a review of Huck Finn in 1984 in which he pretended the novel had just been published.

The anthology concludes with a piece by Roy Blount, Jr., who writes about Twain as America's first Superstar. Indeed, at the time of his death, Mark Twain was the most popular person in the country, and the most popular American in the world.

This anthology of 492 pages is indispensible for the common reader wishing to understand this country's most famous writer.