As Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens straddled the conflicts between culture and commerce that characterized the era he named the Gilded Age. In "Littery Man", Richard Lowry examines how Twain used these conflicts in his major texts to fashion an "autobiography of authorship," a narrative of his own claims to literary authority at that moment when the American Writer emerged as a profession. Drawing on wide range of cultural genres--popular boys' fiction, childbearing manuals, travel narratives, autobiography, and criticism and fiction of the period--Lowry reconstructs how Twain participated in remaking the "literary" into a powerful social category of representation. He shows how, as one of our cultures first modern celebrities, Samuel Clemens transformed his life into the artful performance we have come to as Mark Twain, and his texts into a searching critique of modern identity in a mass-mediated society. "Littery Man" will appeal to both Twain scholars and to scholars and students of nineteenth-century American literature and culture.

This work consists of short excerpts of criticism of 20th-century American authors by important critics writing in newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals, and books. The excerpts (ranging in length from one or two paragraphs to two columns) are allowed to stand on their own without separate plot synopses, summaries, or background information on the authors.

Synopsis
Examining the literary depictions of African American men, Hogue (English, University of Houston) stresses the diversity of the African American experience. Among the texts discussed are Johnson's Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man , Kelley's Different Drummer , Wright's Messenger , Major's Dirty Bird Blues , and Belton's Almost Midnight . Annotat

The myths and legends in this book have been selected both for their excellence as stories and because they illustrate the distinctive nature of Native American storytelling.

• A collection of Native American myths and legends.
• Selected for their excellence as stories, and because they illustrate the distinctive nature of Native American storytelling.
• Drawn from the oral traditions of all major areas of aboriginal North America.
• Reveals the highly practical functions of myths and legends in Native American societies.
• Illustrates American Indians’ profound engagement with their natural environment.
• Edited by an outstanding interpreter of Native American oral stories.