Contemporary and Early Reception and Criticism (to 1960)

doi:10.1017/9781108617208.031

Chapter 29 - Contemporary and Early Reception and Criticism (to 1960)

from Part IV - Reception and Criticism

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2019

Joe B. Fulton

Edited by

John Bird

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John Bird: Affiliation:
Winthrop University

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Summary

It took some time for Mark Twain to be recognized as anything more than just another of the humorists of his time, although from the start, there were critics who recognized that he contained depth and substance that would make him last longer than his ephemeral comic peers. Significantly, William Dean Howells, writing in the influential Atlantic, saw in Twain an important writer to be reckoned with. The public were ahead of most critics in their appreciation of his work, and their letters to him bear witness to his power as a writer. In the early twentieth century, H. L. Mencken was a champion of Twain, although Twain received the same kind of backlash Howells received at the hands of a younger generation, notably Van Wyck Brooks, whose 1920 book The Ordeal of Mark Twain used crude Freudianism to argue that Twain was a comic genius who was censored and emasculated by William Dean Howells and by Twain’s wife. In 1932, Bernard De Voto answered Brooks in Mark Twain’s America, arguing for Twain’s artistry and creative vitality. In many ways, their argument set the tone for Twain criticism, especially in the decades that followed, but continuing even today. In the 1940s and 1950s, Twain’s critical reputation rose, with a number of important critics and scholars seeing in him greatness, elevating Mark Twain to the first rank of American writers.

Keywords

Mark Twain Samuel Clemens reception criticism van Wyck Brooks Bernard DeVoto

Type: Chapter
Information: Mark Twain in Context , pp. 295 - 304

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108617208.031 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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