{"product_id":"the-ghosts-of-mark-twain-a-study-of-manhood-race-and-the-gothic-imagination-9780826223425","title":"The Ghosts of Mark Twain: A Study of Manhood, Race, and the Gothic Imagination","description":"In his autobiography, Mark Twain confesses that \"from the cradle up I have been like the rest of the race--never quite sane in the night.\" Of all the memories and fears that disturbed Twain's peace of mind, none are more intractable than those associated with White fathers, Black men, the histories they reflect, and the future they promise. \u003ci\u003eThe Ghosts of Mark Twain: A Study of Manhood, Race, and the Gothic Imagination\u003c\/i\u003e investigates these tense intersections in Twain's life and work. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Ann M. Ryan maps Twain's resistance to ideals of white masculinity and his occasional capitulation to them. While Twain reflects upon the history of White men--including the intimate memory of his father's failures and abuses--he also imagines a future in which Black men will gain an authentic voice and agency. Preferring the messy humanity of Mark Twain, Ryan calls into question the \"St. Mark\" school of criticism, which glosses--among other themes--Twain's uneasy relation to Black culture. In unpublished works and excised material, Twain conjures memories and specters of Black men that are far from comforting. No longer \"friends and allies\" like fictive Ol' Uncle Dan'l; these Black ghosts will settle for revenge if they can't get justice. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Some of the works considered in \u003ci\u003eThe Ghosts of Mark Twain\u003c\/i\u003e are not widely known: \"Which Was It?,\" \"The United States of Lyncherdom,\" \u003ci\u003eNo. 44: The Mysterious Stranger, \u003c\/i\u003eand the Morgan manuscript of \u003ci\u003ePudd'nhead Wilson. \u003c\/i\u003eWritten into the record of these fragments is Twain's desire to be a different kind of White man, just as their incomplete nature demonstrates how often he stumbled in that effort. When Jim describes the White and Black spirits hovering over Pap Finn, Twain reveals his own conflicted position in America's racial history. And as Jim declares to Huck, \"A body can't tell yit which one gwyne to fetch him at de las.'\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ann M. Ryan\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Missouri Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 11\/28\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSeries:\u003c\/b\u003e Mark Twain and His Circle\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 326\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.33lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.19h x 6.42w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780826223425","brand":"University of Missouri Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45156076060809,"sku":"9780826223425","price":55.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0636\/9240\/6921\/files\/img_40a905b7-97bc-482d-9884-797c1befed69.jpg?v=1768294500","url":"https:\/\/sonsanddaughtersbooks.com\/products\/the-ghosts-of-mark-twain-a-study-of-manhood-race-and-the-gothic-imagination-9780826223425","provider":"Sons and Daughters Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}