The Mark Twain Project is a website that is compiled of Mark Twain’s written documents and published works. It contains autobiographies, letters, books, checks, documents, and so on. The mission and goal of the website is to be a convenient scholarly source for Mark Twain’s works and ultimately to obtain all of Mark Twain’s writings. The project was first brought together by Robert H. Hirst when he succeeded the previous editor that was in charge of compiling all the Mark Twain papers into one source. Hirst had the idea to add the papers to other Mark Twain works and make the Mark Twain Project. Their newest change was to convert all the works into an online website.
The Mark Twain Project began with a single editorial board of three members that were on the original editorial board and remained working on the Mark Twain Project today. The modern day editors consist of mostly males. There is a long list of other people that have contributed to this source on the website. It even includes students who worked on the project as volunteers.
This site breaks down Twain’s work into three different sections of writings. The first section is letters that Mark Twain wrote. It includes all of the letters they have located written by Mark Twain in Chronological order. They are critically edited, include editorial notes, and they used Mark Twain scholars to make assumptions at missing words. A lot of the letters are addressed to family like his sister, mother, brother, and others; however, a good percentage of the letters are sent to several different journals. Digital forms with typed letters are made so the letters are easy for the public to read. Facsimiles are also available to see so that the public can get a better idea of what the real letters look like. These letters serve as a detailed account of Twain’s life and insight to his personality.
The next section is devoted to the writings of Mark Twain. They use the early collection of Mark Twains papers that were collected by Hirst’s predecessor. These texts are supposed to portray Twain’s intentions as close as possible in his writings. The final section compiles images to help the Twain enthusiasts further their understanding of the author. These images have words attached that depict what is in the picture.
There are other tabs like the MTPO tab that describe how the site came about and gives the history of the letters and the Twain family. It even tells why Twain didn’t release some of his writings until after his death. Under the resource tab they have maps and chronologies, a chronological list of Twain’s letters, photographs and manuscript facsimiles, Twain documents, and reviews. This tab has a taste of all the others. This is a great source for any literature scholar or Twain enthusiast therefore the Mark Twain Project should not be overlooked.
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