Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture

I find the book very refreshing on a number of counts. First, it demonstrates the ways in which the actual history of Blacks and Whites in American has often been misrepresented not only by fake historical re-creations such as the ones the author encountered in Hanibal, but by school texts, historical markers, and museum exhibits as well. Balanced and fair-minded, she also points out the struggles of people like the mayor of Hanibal to correct those distortions. Second, she helps to put to rest the often repeated charge that Huckleberry Finn is a racist novel by putting it in the context of Twain's other writings. Because the book is not only informative, but interesting and easy to read,I will recommend this book to my students. I am very glad our library has it. Every college library should.

Shelley Fisher Fishkin clearly loves her work. She loves Mark Twain and she loves being able to write about him and teach about him. This book, written in an invitingly direct and personal style free of jargon, is best read as a voyage into the life and thought of a fine and creative scholar fully engaged with her chosen subject.The book is arranged into three chapters. The first, "The Matter of Hannibal," ably juxtaposes Fishkin's experience of a visit to Hannibal, MO, and her reflections on that visit with her investigation of the role of Hannibal, MO, and Twain's youthful experiences on his classic novels THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER and THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN. The second, EXCAVATIONS, is a quasi-autobiographical account of her research and writing of her most famous book (WAS HUCK BLACK? MARK TWAIN AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN VOICES), blended with her reflections on the controversy surrounding HUCKLEBERRY FINN as an allegedly racist book. The last chapter, RIPPLES AND REVERBERATIONS, is a blend of historical literary criticism and meditations on the uses to which Americans and others have put Mark Twain the writer, "Mark Twain" the self-created character, and Mark Twain the human being.LIGHTING OUT FOR THE TERRITORY is a lovely book; it's a dream to read, and it's thought-provoking in the best sense. It's a model of how literary critics should write both for one another and for a wider audience, and it's an eye-opening examination of one of the greatest writers this country -- or the human race -- ever produced.-- R.B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School

Bear with me for a moment: Sometime around 7th grade, a teacher had my class keep scrapbooks with modern representations of Greek mythology. How quickly the books filled up with examples ranging from cartoons to place names, museum exhibits, sports writing and more! After cataloguing, we were asked, why do the myths live on? Lighting Out For the Territory reminds me of that exercise. It traces how America and Twain reached the point of the conception of Huckleberry Finn and asks how we have since lived with or, in some cases, without its lessons. What have we saved from Twain and his ideas, what have we lost of him and why? Was/is Twain and his work racist? Good questions, explored in the context of the scholar's personal adventures. Our author may not be able to do lunch in Hannibal, MO again soon, but she's welcome at my house any time.

I enjoyed this book the way I enjoyed Richard Holmes' Footsteps and Thomas Hoving's King of the Confessors which loosely fit into a genre I call "scholars' adventures." It serves other more valuable purposes, though. It is a lucid rereading of Huckleberry Finn that leaves the joy and surprise of the work intact for the reader. It addresses the "N" word problem head-on; I appreciate Fisher Fiskin's unwavering commitment to her interpretation. It makes sense of Twain's oddysey from the child of slavery-defending parents to the adult abolitionist. It is a clear-eyed vision of the troubled history of race relations then and now. As life (and literature) affirming as FF's voice is, I remain stunned and angered by the America revealed by the bullwhip episode in contemporary Hannibal. Her observation that the controversy surrounding Huckleberry Finn is tied to how the novel is (not) taught is likewise commentary on our culture. If everyone

Combining personal narrative, biography and criticism, this book examines both how America shaped Mark Twain and how he continues to influence American society today. The ways in which Twain is recognized and celebrated today are influenced by each person or group's perception of him. In Hannibal, Missouri, the setting of his most popular books, Twain is celebrated annually, but without reference to Huckleberry Finn or the slaveholding society that book depicts. In Elmira, New York, Twain married into an abolitionist family that was active with the Underground Railroad. This led him to reexamine the institution of slavery and provides the background for Elmira's broader recognition of Twain's career. The book's discussion of the issues surrounding race and slavery in Twain's writings and their reception today is especially illuminating and timely. The book also examines his role in inspiring hundreds of writers around the world to write in the vernacular first person, portrayals of him in later fiction (including a posthumous novel written by Ouija board!) and by Twain impersonators, the reasons he is so frequently quoted, and his prominent presence in cyberspace. Although written by a leading Twain scholar (author of Was Huck Black? and editor of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain), the book is made instantly accessible as we follow Fishkin's narrative of her own path to a fascination with Mark Twain. Highly recommended.