Letters From the Earth - New Uncensored Writings by Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Fawcett Crest

1963

240 páginas

8h 0m

ISBN-10: B000JIMQKK

One of Mark Twain's posthumously published works, most of it written shortly before his death. It was written during a difficult time in Twain's life; he was deep in debt and had lost his wife and two of his three daughters. Initially, his sole heir, daughter, Clara Clemens, objected to its publication in March 1939. She felt that probably because of its controversial and iconoclastic views on religion, that it presented a "distorted" view of her father. But she changed her mind in 1962, feeling that "Mark Twain belonged to the world" and that public opinion had become more tolerant. Another reason for Clara's approval was that she felt that the Communist's claim that her father's views were suppressed in America was incorrect. The book consists of a series of short stories, many of which deal with God and Christianity. The title story consists of eleven letters written by the archangel Satan to other archangels. This is Mark Twain at his darkest, raw, jeering, pulverizing yet still a brilliant humorist. Other short stories in the book include a bedtime story about a family of cats Twain wrote for his daughters, and an essay explaining why an anaconda is morally superior to Man. Like some of Mark Twain's lesser-known short pieces, some of these just don't land the knockout punch but there are some in this book that do and that is why we still read Twain today. Because no one knew how to tell a joke so well, could tell the unvarnished truth so searingly well & still be liked. A must-read!