Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer Abroad

Max Lester Loges (Lamar University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1894

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel
Children's Literature
- Young Adult

Resources

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Unfortunately,

Tom Sawyer Abroad

is not one of Mark Twain’s best efforts. Perhaps this impression is due to the reason it was conceived in the first place: the story was written at a time when Twain desperately needed money; in fact, the work was published as a book on the date that his publishing firm Webster and Country filed for bankruptcy. The project was initiated by a request from Mary Mapes Dodge, editor of the

Saint Nicholas Magazine

, a publication for children. She had offered Twain five thousand dollars for a story of 50,000 word which he considered to be a rather modest offer. He took the offer, but the manuscript is much shorter than 50,000 words.

Twain may have taken the idea for his story from a notebook notation he had made in 1868 about a balloon adventure that had

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1316 words

Citation: Loges, Max Lester. "Tom Sawyer Abroad". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 24 August 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8395, accessed 18 April 2024.]

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