Mark Twain and America’s Ownership Society

Mark Twain and America’s Ownership Society
Lawrence Howe Roosevelt University

Wednesday, October 17th in the Barn at Quarry Farm 8 p.m.

Larry Howe will address his analysis of Mark Twain’s vexed interest in property, the subject of Professor Howe’s current book project. He will focus particularly on the Clemens family’s Tennessee land, which influenced Sam Clemens from an early age, and Mark Twain’s insightful strategies for protecting his copyrights later in life. Howe’s research on this topic refutes the prevailing portrait of Mark Twain as gifted literary man with no head for business. To the contrary, Twain was astutely aware that property was not the sure thing that many an American dream has been built upon, and his life and writing provide insight into an American fascination with property as a measure of social worth.

Larry Howe teaches American literature and film studies at Roosevelt University. He is the author of Mark Twain
and the Novel: The Double-Cross of Authority.

Enjoy light refreshments before this concluding lecture of the Fall Season. Doors open at 7:15. The Trouble Begins at Eight.