Book Launch on June 20:
Dr. Kerry Driscoll’s
Mark Twain Among the Indians
UConn grad and Twain scholar Dr. Kerry Driscoll, recently retired from the St. Joseph University English Department, will introduce her newly published work Mark Twain Among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples at a book launch at The Mark Twain House & Museum on Wednesday, June 20, at 7 p.m. The event is free.
The release of this painstakingly researched and elegantly written book is a historic occasion in the world of Mark Twain studies, filling definitively a blank spot in the narrative and analysis of Twain’s attitudes about race and culture.
The event will be preceded by a reception in Hal Holbrook Hall, followed by a presentation by Dr. Driscoll in the Lincoln Financial Auditorium and a book-signing.
“Mark Twain Among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples is the first book-length study of the writer’s evolving views regarding the aboriginal inhabitants of North America and the Southern Hemisphere, and his deeply conflicted representations of them in fiction, newspaper sketches, and speeches,” according to press materials issued by the University of California Press, the book’s publisher.
The book has garnered pre-publication praise from Mark Twain scholars along with encomiums from Native American scholars. Philip Deloria, the first professor of Native American Studies at Harvard University, calls the book “a brilliant and comprehensive assessment of Twain’s contradictory feelings toward indigenous peoples.”
Driscoll is an internationally renowned Mark Twain scholar and Immediate Past President of the Mark Twain Circle of America. For two decades she has been a loyal friend of — and frequent lecturer, exhibition consultant, and teacher-workshop organizer at — The Mark Twain House & Museum, and she was recently appointed to the museum’s Board of Trustees.
Mark Twain Among the Indians and Other Indigenous Peoples retails for $95; the Museum Store will offer one-time discounts EXCLUSIVELY for those attending the book launch: 30 percent for members of The MTH&M, 20 percent for all other attendees.
The event is free, but pre-registration is strongly suggested.
The Mark Twain House & Museum is the restored Hartford, Connecticut home where American author Samuel Clemens — Mark Twain — and his family lived from 1874 to 1891. Twain wrote his most important works, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, during the years he lived there. In addition to providing tours of Twain’s restored home, a National Historic Landmark, the institution offers activities and education programs that illuminate Twain’s literary legacy and provide information about his life and times.
Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts, and the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign.
The house and museum at 351 Farmington Avenue are open daily 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
For more information call 860-247-0998 or visit marktwainhouse.org.
