World Books Podcast: 100th anniversary of the death of Mark Twain

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April 21st marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Mark Twain, an American icon who made an indelible impression on the world before and after his demise. The Library of America has published two volumes that remind us of Twain’s influence on other countries. One is a collection of Twain’s travel writing, featuring “A Tramp Abroad,” “Following the Equator,” and uncollected pieces. The press is also publishing “The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Works,” which contains a selection of international responses to Twain, visual as well as literary. World Books editor Bill Marx spoke to the editor of the latter volume, Stanford University professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin, about Twain’s impressions of the world and the world’s impressions of Twain.

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• Bill Marx’s Arts Fuse blog

World Books Review: American Writers in Istanbul

“American Writers in Istanbul” should have been a fascinating example of multicultural literary analysis, but academic jargon and heavy-handed politicizing get in the way.

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• Bill Marx’s Arts Fuse blog