Synopses & Reviews
This superb bibliography unlocks a wealth of early commentary and more recent scholarship relatively inaccessible to English-speaking readers. The generous annotations convey the spirit and essential points of hundreds of books and articles on Twain, making this an important acquisition for every college and university reference collection.
Thomas A. Tenney, Editor, Mark Twain Journal
Mark Twain, one of the most widely published American authors, has enjoyed immense popularity both in the United States and abroad. A fascinating aspect of this popularity is his wide acclaim in German-speaking countries, which stems not only from his literary accomplishments, but also his numerous visits to Europe and his extended stays in Vienna and Berlin.
This book is a comprehensive and extensively annotated bibliography which chronologically surveys Mark Twain's German critical reception from 1875 through 1986. Within each year, items are listed alphabetically by author, and each item is assigned an entry number. English-language annotations accompany each bibliographic citation to assist the reader in ascertaining the flavor and scope of the cited material. Included are monographs, critical texts, reviews, reprints, newspaper articles, dissertations, excerpts from standard literary histories, and introductions and afterwords to editions of his works published in the Federal Republic of Germany, as well as the German Democratic Republic, Austria, and Switzerland. Entries are cross listed, and the volume includes a comprehensive 52-page index. This bibliography provides unique insight into Mark Twain from an often overlooked perspective; it will be of interest to students, scholars, and critics of this great American author, humorist and social critic.
Review
Dr. Kinch has done a remarkably thorough job of compiling and annotating German, Austrian, and Swiss criticism of Mark Twain. These informative annotations offer more than simple precis of critical responses; taken as a whole, these carefully constructed brief commentaries add up to a critical history of Twain's German reputation. Changes in literary taste and cultural values are clearly revealed through the preoccupations of more than one hundred years of scholarship. Kinch has done a valuable service to American critics and scholars by making accessible to readers not fluent in German this rich bibliographical history of Twain scholarship in his second-most-favorite country.William E. Grant Director, American Culture Studies Program and Professor of English and American Studies, Bowling Green State University
Synopsis
"This superb bibliography unlocks a wealth of early commentary and more recent scholarship relatively inaccessible to English-speaking readers. The generous annotations convey the spirit and essential points of hundreds of books and articles on Twain, making this an important acquisition for every college and university reference collection." Thomas A. Tenney Editor, Mark Twain Journal
About the Author
J.C.B. KINCH is Assistant Professor of English at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.