The Twain Shall Meet—The Lost Manuscript
Another comprehensive site, including:
• Various interpretations that have been
assigned to Huckleberry Finn since its first publication.
• Mark Twain's editor on how the lost
manuscript was discovered.
• Twain's handwriting from the original
Huckleberry Finn manuscript.
• An essay by Ralph Ellison on the
character Jim.
• The Mark Twain House, the oddest
looking building in the state.
• The life of Sam Clemens, a.k.a. Mark
Twain: A brief chronology.
• Links
http://www.randomhouse.com/atr/winter96/twain.html
“Boy hero Huck Finn deserves better than this”
by Frank Ritter
This is a newspaper columnist’s brief opinion regarding Huck Finn and
poiltical correctness, touches on the issue of racism. Included because it is a
source available in print as well as on the ’net.
http://harpo.tnstate.edu/~jordan/ritter.html
Reviews of Huckleberry Finn
Reviews from newspapers, including The Atlanta Constitution,1885: May 26; Life,
1885: February 26, et cetera.
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/hucrevhp.html
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Lots of stuff, seems to refer mostly to original publication. This is the
homepage for the site listed above.
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, first published in America in January 1885,
has always been in
trouble. According to Ernest Hemingway, it was the "one book" from
which "all modern American
literature" came, and 20th-century critics and scholars have treated it as
one of the greatest American works of art. Of all MT's novels, it was also the
one that sold best at its initial appearance. On the
other hand, it was condemned by many reviewers in MT's time as coarse and by
many
commentators in our time as racist. In 1885 it was banished from the shelves of
the Concord Public
Library, an act that attracted a lot of publicity and discussion in the press.
It is still frequently in the
news, as various schools and school systems across the country either ban it
from or restore it to
their classrooms. The texts and illustrations below attempt to capture both the
novel's achievement
and some aspects of its controversiality.”
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/huchompg.html
Mark Twain on "Huck Finn", New York
Tribune (Aug. 22, 1902).
A report on the banning of Huckleberry Finn from the Denver Public Library, with
Twain's letter blaming the incident on General Funston.
http://www.accinet.net/~fjzwick/twain/denvpost.html
Is Huck Finn a Racist Book?
A brief essay with links. Included because writer supports his opinions with
quotations from the text, for instance, the following quoted from the esaay: A
closer reading also reveals Twain’s serious satiric intent. In one scene for
instance, Aunt Sally hears of a steamboat explosion.
"Good gracious! anybody hurt?" she asks.
"No'm," comes the answer. "Killed a nigger."
http://salwen.com/mtrace.html
The Entire Text
Just what it says.
http://www.lm.com/~joseph/finn/finntitl.html
Savanna’s Huckleberry Finn Study Guide
Featuring:
• Essay topics
• Character trait project with quotes
and examples
• Irony/satire journal
• Links to other Huck Finn sites
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/2588/huckfinn.html
An African American explains why Huck Finn should
not be taught in schools
A well written, fairly powerful essay favoring replacing the common version of
Huck Finn with “Huck Finn Lite;” you know, the one without the “n” word.
“What we need to consider is whether or not it is "emotionally
correct." I suggest we close our eyes
and try to imagine what it must be like to be an African-American child with
some awareness of his
history, who is forced to sit and listen to the word, "nigger" read
aloud 200 times. It is an easy
exercise for parents of Black children.”
http://www.esuhsd.k12.ca.us/ph/legend/features/huck.con.html
City middle school drops 'Huck Finn'
By Chris Grosso, YDN Staff Reporter
Newspaper column, title says it all.
http://www.yale.edu/ydn/paper/3.20/3.20.95storyno.CA.html
SC City Schools Considers Censorship of Core
Readings
By Daren Commons
An essay, author named, but doesn’t tell where it was published, and the link
to the home page is broken. Included because it appears to be South Carolina
(see title).
http://www.armory.com/~cards/edu/schs/trident/3-95/huck.html
Mark Twain as Literary Whipping Boy
Essay by Nigey Lennon, featured in BBR April 1996
References the Huck Finn/racism controversy.
http://www.bookwire.com/bbr/interviews/v3/twain.html
Illustrating Huck
Includes every illustration in the book.
“As the owner of the company that was publishing Huck Finn , MT had almost
complete control over its production. He himself selected Edward W. Kemble to
illustrate it, based on Kemble's work for the humor magazine Life.”
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/twaillus1.html
Some Passed-Over Classics
Rule Of The Bone, by Russell Banks
This site describes a book. Included because I found it amusing. The entire
related information, quoted below.
“Arguably one of the funniest books in recent history. A contemporary
retelling of Huck Finn, Banks has turned Huck (named Bone) into a 14 year-old
stoner from upstate New York, who drops out of high school and eventually meets
the Jim character (called the I-Man) who is a 40 year-old Rastaman living in an
abandoned school bus in Plattsburg, NY. Together they make a pilgrimage to
Jamaica where Bone believes his father is living, and where I-Man can resume his
life as marijuana dealing shaman. Although the premise might sound a bit
sophomoric, the story so neatly and creatively translates Twain's classic into
the modern world that you can't help finding the time to read the whole thing in
a day or two.”
http://www.columbia.edu/~mjr48/pages/books.html
ACLU Challenges Removal of “Huck Finn” from San
Jose High School Reading Lists
A press release.
http://www.aclu.org/community/calif-n/huck.html
The Huckleberry Finn Web Site
Two eleventh graders did this site as a project. It includes:
• Huck Finn Plot
• Huck Finn Themes
• Mark Twain Biography
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/MBrennan/
The Life Cover of Huck Finn
http://www.pathfinder.com/@@7omPXQQAIw@IslH@/Life/covers/1948/cv081648.html
Searching Mark Twain
This archive currently supports two search tools, one for the Reviews of both
MT's books and his live performances, and one for the full texts of Innocents
Abroad, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Connecticut Yankee, and Pudd'nhead Wilson.
Yes, that’s right, it is a search engine for the text of Huck Finn.
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/about/search.html
The “School Sucks” site
Well, would you believe some enterprising soul has gathered papers and placed
them online? A couple of Twain papers, and A Comparison Of The Catcher In The
Rye And The Adventures of Huck Finn.
http://www.schoolsucks.com/papers/english/author.html
Mark Twain Resources on the World Wide Web
A links site, and the links have explanations of what they point to.
http://web.syr.edu/~fjzwick/twainwww/twpopcul.html
The Issue of Freedom in Huckleberry Finn
An essay submitted as coursework by a high school student.
http://www.mvhs.srvusd.k12.ca.us/~wardhaug/portfolio/huckf.txt
Davy and Huck Finn
“An example of how speculative fiction can tell a timeless story in a timeless
way”
http://www.spectacle.org/396/scifi/huck.html