Rethinking Huck
Books
Nothing is simple about that “simple”
boy, Huckleberry Finn – not even the text of the
novel that bears his name. Less than twenty years ago,
a lost manuscript of the book was rediscovered, and
new editions include a chapter that was completely missing
from earlier versions! If you’re interested in
this part of Huck’s story, look at these modern
editions:
Twain, Mark, Justin Kapalan (Introduction) and Victor
Doyno (Foreward and Addendum). The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn. New York: Random House, 1996.
Twain, Mark, with Victor Fischer, Lin Salamo and Walter
Blair (Eds). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
illustrated by E.W. Kemble and John Harley. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 2003.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn:
Tom Sawyer's Comrade: Scene, the Mississippi Valley,
Time, Forty to Fifty Years Ago, illustrated by
E.W. Kemble and John Harley. Berkeley: University of
California Press, c2001.
Huckleberry Finn seems so real that it’s hard
to believe the book is 120 years old. Here’s a
fine collection of essays published to celebrate centennial
of the novel’s appearance:
Sattelmeyer, Robert and J. Donald Crowley (Eds). One
hundred years of Huckleberry Finn: The Boy, his Book,
and American Culture: Centennial Essays. Columbia:
University of Missouri Press, 1985.
Two books that provide useful surveys of Huck’s
reception by critics over the last 120 years are:
M. Thomas Inge (Ed). Huck Finn Among the Critics:
A Centennial Selection. Frederick, MD: University
Publications of America, c1985.
Twain, Mark, Gerald Graff, James Phelan (Eds). The
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Case Study in Critical
Controversy. edited by Gerald Graff, James Phelan.
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, c2004.
This work traces adaptations of the novel for movie
and television screens:
Haupt, Clyde V. Huckleberry Finn on Film : Film
and Television Adaptations of Mark Twain's Novel, 1920-1993.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland, c1994.
The challenge of analyzing the novel’s treatment
of race in mid-nineteenth century America has attracted
wide attention. These books are a good starting point:
Chadwick-Joshua, Jocelyn. The Jim Dilemma: Reading
Race in Huckleberry Finn. Jackson: University Press
of Mississippi, c1998.
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Was Huck Black? : Mark
Twain and African-American Voices. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1993.
Leonard, James S., Thomas A. Tenney and Thadious M.
Davis (Eds). Satire or evasion? : Black Perspectives
on Huckleberry Finn. Durham: Duke University Press,
1992.
Precisely because of its treatment of race, Huckleberry
Finn demands special care when used in the classroom.
These works help address the issue:
Johnson, Claudia D. Understanding Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources,
and Historical Documents. Westport, CT: Greenwood
Press, 1996.
Leonard, James (Ed). Making Mark Twain Work in
the Classroom. Durham, NC: Duke University Press,
1999.
Rush, Sharon. Huck Finn's "Hidden" Lessons:
Teaching and Learning Across the Color Line. Lanham,
MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, c2006.
The story of Samuel Clemens’s creation of his
masterpiece is almost as fascinating as the novel itself.
These are good introductions to the story:
Doyno, Victor. Writing Huck Finn: Mark Twain's
Creative Process. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press, c1991.
Hutchinson, Stuart. Mark Twain: Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry
Finn. New York: Columbia University Press, 1999.
Steven Mintz, author of the essay you’ve just
read, has written an excellent study of the evolving
ideas of childhood and children in America. This book
touches on many of the broader themes in the article
in this issue. It’s no accident that the book’s
title pays tribute to Mark Twain’s masterpiece:
Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood.
Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2004.
Internet Resources:
On the web, your best bet is Stephen Railton’s
“Mark Twain in His Times” website in the
University of Virginia’s Electronic Text Center.
This interpretive archive focuses on how "Mark
Twain" and his works were created and defined,
marketed and performed, reviewed and appreciated. To
this end, the site presents dozens of texts and manuscripts,
contemporary reviews and articles about Mark Twain,
hundreds of images, and several interactive exhibits:
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/index2.html
The segment on Huckleberry Finn is invaluable.
Railton and his colleagues provide materials on the
sources of the novel in Twain’s life and imagination,
marketing methods used, samples of illustrations used
over the decades in various editions, contemporary reviews
of the novel, the use of “Huck” in Twain’s
lecture series, special section on images of Jim, the
treatment of race, class, and gender in Twain’s
works. Once you get to this website, you may never leave:
http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/huckfinn/huchompg.html
