Mark Twain at
SAMLA 2001
The South Atlantic Modern Language Association will hold its annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, 9-11 November 2001, and, as usual, the Mark Twain Circle will host a session as one of the more popular affiliated groups. With the following Call for Papers, I invite complete papers or detailed abstracts, due no later than 20 April 2001. Topic:
Mark Twain's Detractors And
Defenders
Beneath this broad topic
might appear papers dealing with Mark Twain's personal and/or his professional
life. A typical paper for this session might present interesting details about
MT's friendship with, for example, Henry Huttleston Rogers of Standard Oil, who
provided financial advice following MT's bankruptcy. Another paper might
present new information about MT's friendship with non-literary figures such as
Ulysses S. Grant.
MT also had his detractors. Examples include his bitter feud
with former friend Bret Harte, or the vilification MT received in the national
press over his involvement with the anti-imperialism movement at the turn of
the century.
If you are pursuing a
research question that might fit this general topic, you may want to consult
Paul Machlis' Union Catalog of Clemens Letters (1986) and his Union
Catalog of Letters to Clemens (1992). This also would be a good starting
point to discover little-known but interesting personalities with whom MT
corresponded.
If you have a special MT
project that does not quite fit the Call for Papers topic, please send it
along, and perhaps we will be able to fine-tune the program to accommodate your
paper. I look forward to hearing from
you. Philip W. Leon, Prof. of English, The Citadel, 171 Moultrie Street, Charleston,
SC 29409-6310.