R. Kent Rasmussen

Mark Twain's affection for cats is well-known, and no one would be surprised to hear he also liked dogs. Less well known, however, is his admiration for horses and their kin, donkeys and mules. He clearly was fascinated with them, and he probably wrote more about them than he did about either cats or dogs. In this book the author offers a collection of Mark Twain's best writings about horses, donkeys, and mules, along with some first-hand observations of him and the animals recorded by people who knew him well, such as his daughter Clara. Organized chronologically from his early trips out west to his visits to Europe and Middle East in his later years, the book also includes stories of horses drawn purely from his imagination, including the short novel A Horse's Tale. Other equine vignettes are drawn from such Twain's classics as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and more.

Interesting facts that teach kids ages 8 to 12 all about World War II Was the Second World War a continuation of the First World War? How did children in the United States contribute to the war effort? Help young learners find the answers to these questions and more in this close-up look at the largest conflict the world has ever known. They'll learn how it began, who fought in it, and the ways it affected lives all around the globe-one unbelievable fact at a time. Go beyond other World War 2 books with: 175+ amazing things to know-Kids will step back in time and explore the history of World War II with Q&As, true or false questions, and more. Easy-to-share facts-Provide kids with bite-sized facts that are simple to remember and exciting to tell their friends and family. A complete overview-Young learners will examine how the war started, the new ways it was fought, the effects it had on the lives of ordinary people, and more.Make learning about history easy with this top choice in books about World War 2.

Interesting facts that teach kids ages 8 to 12 all about World War II Was the Second World War a continuation of the First World War? How did children in the United States contribute to the war effort? Help young learners find the answers to these questions and more in this close-up look at the largest conflict the world has ever known. They'll learn how it began, who fought in it, and the ways it affected lives all around the globe-one unbelievable fact at a time. Go beyond other World War 2 books with: 175+ amazing things to know-Kids will step back in time and explore the history of World War II with Q&As, true or false questions, and more. Easy-to-share facts-Provide kids with bite-sized facts that are simple to remember and exciting to tell their friends and family. A complete overview-Young learners will examine how the war started, the new ways it was fought, the effects it had on the lives of ordinary people, and more.Make learning about history easy with this top choice in books about World War 2.

This first installment of the new multi-volume Mark Twain’s Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading recounts Dr. Alan Gribben’s fascinating 45-year search for surviving volumes from the large library assembled by Twain and his family. That collection of more than 3,000 titles was dispersed through impromptu donations and abrupt public auctions, but over the years nearly a thousand volumes have been recovered. Gribben’s research also encompasses many hundreds of other books, stories, essays, poems, songs, plays, operas, newspapers, and magazines with which Mark Twain was demonstrably familiar.Gribben published the original edition of Mark Twain’s Library in 1980. Hailed by the eminent Twain scholar Louis J. Budd as “a superb job that will last for generations,” the work nevertheless soon went out of print and for three decades has been a hard-to-find item on the rare book market. Meanwhile, over a distinguished career of writing, teaching, and research on Twain, Gribben continued to annotate, revise, and expand the content such that it has become his life’s masterwork. Thoroughly revised, enlarged, and retitled, Mark Twain’s Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading now reappears, to greatly expand our comprehension of the incomparable author’s reading tastes and influences.Volume I traces Twain’s extensive use of public libraries. It identifies Twain’s favorite works, but also reveals his strong dislikes—Chapter 10 is devoted to his “Library of Literary Hogwash,” specimens of atrocious poetry and prose that he delighted in ridiculing. In describing Twain’s habit of annotating his library books, Gribben reveals his methods of detecting forged autographs and marginal notes that have fooled booksellers, collectors, and libraries. The volume’s 25 chapters trace from various perspectives the patterns of Twain’s voracious reading and relate what he read to his own literary outpouring. A “Critical Bibliography” evaluates the numerous scholarly books and articles that have studied Twain’s reading, and an index guides readers to the volume’s diverse subjects.Twain enjoyed cultivating a public image as a largely unread natural talent; on occasion he even denied being acquainted with titles that he had owned, inscribed, and annotated in his own personal library. He convinced many friends and interviewers that he had no appetite for fiction, poetry, drama, or belles-lettres, yet Gribben reveals volumes of evidence to the contrary. He examines this unlettered pose that Twain affected and speculates about the reasons behind it. In reality, whether Twain was memorizing the classic writings of ancient Rome or the more contemporary works of Milton, Byron, Shelley, Dickens, and Tennyson—or, for that matter, quoting from the best-selling fiction and poetry of his day—he exhibited a lifelong hunger to overcome the brevity of his formal education. Several of Gribben’s chapters explore the connections between Twain’s knowledge of authors such as Malory, Shakespeare, Poe, and Browning, and his own literary works, group readings, and family activities.Volumes II and III of Mark Twain’s Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading will be released in 2019 and will deliver an “Annotated Catalog” arranged from A to Z, documenting in detail the staggering scope of Twain’s reading.

Nineteenth-century America and the world of Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, come to life as children journey back in time with this history- and literature-laden activity book. The comprehensive biographical information explores Mark Twain as a multi-talented man of his times, from his childhood in the rough-and-tumble West of Missouri to his many careers—steamboat pilot, printer, miner, inventor, world traveler, businessman, lecturer, newspaper reporter, and most important, author—and how these experiences influenced his writing. Twain-inspired activities include making printer’s type, building a model paddlewheel boat, unmasking a hoax, inventing new words, cooking cornpone, planning a newspaper, observing people, and writing maxims. An extensive resource section offers information on Twain’s classics, such as Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as a listing of recommended web sites to explore.

Here are more than 1,800 quotations, organized from A-to-Z, from America's consummate author - Mark Twain. A must-have for all Twain collectors, "The Quotable Mark Twain" is filled with his opinions about the people he knew, the places he's been, and the books he wrote, as well as more far-ranging topics, such as writers, billiards, smoking, his family, and more. The book also includes 150 illustrations taken from the original editions of Twain's publications, source citations for each quotation, an annotated bibliography, and a complete index.

Mark Twain's Book for Bad Boys and Girls is the first-ever compilation of Twain's own wise and witty essays, sketches, and stories on the joys and rewards of misbehavior.