Book description
When the Civil War halted steamboat travel on the Mississippi River
in 1861, an unemployed riverboat pilot named Samuel Clemens enlisted
in the Missouri militia. After two weeks of service, Clemens abandoned
his post and fled westward to begin a writing career -- a turn of
events that precipitated the rise to fame of the man who would become
known as Mark Twain. The circumstances surrounding his departure are
unclear; some view Twain as a deserter, while others call into
question the nature of his commitment from the beginning. Twain
defended himself in speeches and in print, offering varying accounts
-- with varying degrees of truth -- of his confusion upon enrollment,
his ignorance of the moral and political forces behind the war, and
his claim to have killed a man while hiding in a corncrib. Regardless
of the reason for his desertion, his personal experiences and the
Civil War in general are recurring topics in Twain's speeches,
fiction, and nonfiction. In addition to broaching the issue in longer
works, such as Life on the Mississippi and The Gilded Age, Twain
directly addresses it in shorter pieces such as "The Private
History of a Campaign That Failed" and "A Curious
Experience." Editor David Rachels unites these selections in Mark
Twain's Civil War, offering Twain fans and Civil War scholars the
unprecedented opportunity to read the entire array of Twain's Civil
War-influenced literature in one volume. In addition to Twain's own
pieces, Rachels includes an account of Twain's war career by his
official biographer as well as a story by Absalom C. Grimes, a
Confederate mail runner who claims to have served with Twain early in
the war. An introduction by Rachels completes the text, which analyzes
Twain's military stint and assesses the war's profound influence on
one of America's most celebrated authors.
""Readers will find that Rachels' book provides insight
into the war's influence on this great American writer, and the volume
will find an appropriate place both in history collections and
literary ones as well."" -- Richard W. Hatcher III, Post and Courier
