Mark Twain and the Critics, 1891-1910

<p> Over the last twenty years of his life, Mark Twain was a controversial figure. He evolved from the "clown prince of American literature" into a biting social critic and political observer. While some pundits hailed him as a satirist equal to Cervantes and Jonathan Swift, others excoriated him as a "degenerate literary freak" who wielded a "scurrilous and venomous pen." </p><p> This volume traces the evolution of Mark Twain's public image between 1891 and his death in 1910.