Longtime admirers of Mark Twain are aware of how integral animals were to his work as a writer, starting with the first stories to bring him national acclaim and continuing through his final
years, with many of these pieces left unpublished at his death. This beautiful volume, illustrated with 30 new images by master engraver Barry Moser, gathers writings from the full span of Mark
Twain's career and elucidates his special attachment to and regard for animals. What may surprise even longtime readers and fans is that Twain was an early and ardent animal welfare advocate,
the most prominent American of his day to take up that cause. Edited and selected by Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who has also supplied an introduction and afterword, Mark Twain's Book of
Animals includes stories that are familiar along with those that are appearing in print for the first time. We encounter Twain at his silliest, his most philosophical, his most sardonic,
and his most sentimental. Texts are dark as well as playful, repellent as well as appealing-as full of variety, complexity, surprise, and delight as the author himself-and bring into sharp
relief a rarely observed aspect of Twain's work.
