Georgetown Peabody Library

Letters from the earth, uncensored writings, Mark Twain ; edited by Bernard DeVoto

eng

Includes bibliographical references (p. [319])

no index present

non fiction

Letters from the earth

bibliography

54446356

Mark Twain ; edited by Bernard DeVoto

uncensored writings

"I have told you nothing about man that is not true." You must pardon me if I repeat that remark now and then in these letters; I want you to take seriously the things I am telling you, and I feel that if I were in your place and you in mine, I should need that reminder from time to time, to keep my credulity from flagging. In Letters from the Earth, Twain presents himself as the Father of History -- reviewing and interpreting events from the Garden of Eden through the Fall and the Flood, translating the papers of Adam and his descendants through the generations. First published fifty years after his death, this eclectic collection is vintage Twain: sharp, witty, imaginative, complex, and wildly funny

Foreword / by Henry Nash Smith. -- Letters from the Earth. -- Papers of the Adam family: Extract from Methuselah's diary ; A later extract from Methuselah's diary ; Extract from Eve's autobiography ; Passage from Eve's autobiography ; The world in the year 920 after creation ; Two fragments from a suppressed book called "Glances at history" or "Outlines of history" ; Extract from Shem's diary of 920 A.C. -- Letter to the Earth. -- A cat-tale. -- Cooper's prose style. -- Official report to the I.I.A.S. -- The Gorky incident. -- Simplified spelling. -- Something about repentance. -- From an English notebook: The Albert Memorial ; Old Saint Paul's ; The British Museum. -- From the manuscript of "A tramp abroad": the French and the Comanches. -- From an unfinished burlesque of books on etiquette: At the funeral ; At a fire ; Visiting cards. -- The damned human race: Was the world made for man? ; In the animals' court ; Zola's La terre ; The intelligence of God ; The lowest animal. -- The great dark