Even in the decades before Mark Twain enthralled the world with his evocative representations of the Mississippi, the river played an essential role in American culture and consciousness. Throughout the antebellum era, the Mississippi acted as a powerful symbol of America's conception of itself -- and the world's conception of America. As Twain understood, "The Mississippi is well worth reading about." Thomas Ruys Smith's River of Dreams is an examination of the Mississippi's role in the a...

As the modern celebration of Christmas took shape across the nineteenth century, American writers gave it new meaning in the pages of countless books and magazines. Now, for the first time, this rich anthology brings together some of the most significant of those seasonal stories to retell a forgotten tale of Christmases past.From the authors who helped define a national literary culture, to the popular sentimentalists who negotiated Christmas’s position at the center of family lif...

This book explores what it means to study America in the twenty-first century and what the emergence of the field of New Area Studies means for the development of American Studies.By analysing the meaning of interdisciplinarity, aesthetics, temporality, and periodisation, this book reveals both fields of study through the lens of interdisciplinary cases studies, innovative methodologies, and a global perspective. Exploring the imagined geographies of America across space and time, ...

Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (1852–1930) was one of the most popular American writers at the turn of the twentieth century, and her annual Christmas stories appeared in magazines and periodicals across the globe. Since then, the extraordinary stories that once delighted her legions of fans every festive season have gone largely out of print and unread. Now, for the first time, The Last Gift presents a collection of Freeman’s best Christmas writing, introducing these funny, poignant, pr...

In 1836 Benjamin Drake, a midwestern writer of popular sketches for newspapers of the day, introduced his readers to a new and distinctly American rascal who rode the steamboats up and down the Mississippi and other western waterways -- the riverboat gambler. These men, he recorded, "dress with taste and elegance; carry gold chronometers in their pockets; and swear with the most genteel precision.... Every where throughout the valley, these mistletoe gentry are called by the original, if n...

In Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom (1860), William Craft recounts the circumstances under which he and his wife escaped from slavery. His account also relates incidents that portray the evils of slavery, including its negative effects on slaveholders, white children sold into slavery, and other slaves.

Jacob Fuller, the bridegroom, is twenty-six years old, is of an old but unconsidered family which had by compulsion emigrated from Sedgemoor, and for King James's purse's profit, so everybody said--some maliciously the rest merely because they believed it. The bride is nineteen and beautiful. She is intense, high-strung, romantic, immeasurably proud of her Cavalier blood, and passionate in her love for her young husband. For its sake she braved her father's displeasure, endured his reproac...

*** Original and Unabridged Content. Made available by GOLDEN CLASSIC PRESS***Synopsis:Mark Twain's Speeches have delighted audiences for over one hundred years. Filled with wit and wry observation, these speeches are enjoyable to read and excellent examples of the way to entertain and persuade a crowd.

This book-collection file includes books of Mark Twain's speeches and letters, plus 3 book-length collections of essays: What is Man? Sketches New and Old, and Christian Science. It also includes the following short collections and individual essays: Editorial Wild Oats, Essays on Paul Bourget, Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences, and In Defence of Harriet Shelley. According to Wikipedia: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American humori...

Satire, mocking Washington, DC and leaders of the day (first published in 1873). According to Wikipedia: "Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 – 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and Euro...