Into the Archives: Well, That Was An Adventure

The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain Hardcover – January 1, 1957 by Mark Twain (Author), Charles Neider (Editor)

1957. 676 pages.

Hollywood Anecdotes – August 12, 1988 by Paul F. Boller Jr. and Ronald L. Davis

Authentic and apocryphal anecdotes about the American movie industry and various aspects of American filmmaking. 460 pages.

Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Deliciously Entertaining Myths That Are Absolutely, Positively, 100% Not True  – January 1, 1999 by Richard Roeper (Author)

Recounts dozens of stories that have become part of contemporary folklore even though they have no basis in fact, and reveals the truth behind each legend. 285 Pages.

The Grand Miracle: Daily Reflections for the Season of Advent

This full-color, 64-page booklet features the writings of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Dorothy Sayers, George MacDonald, and others, with daily reflections penned by modern influencers.

The Giant Garden of Oz Hardcover by Eric Shanower (Author) 178 pages.

As fans of L. Frank Baum's Oz books know, Dorothy not only returned to Oz but eventually brought her Uncle Henry and Aunt Em back to live there. Now they have a little farm miles from the Emerald City, but one night when Dorothy stops to visit the farm isn't little anymore -- overnight everything growing in the garden grows to immense size. With an also growing Henry and Em trapped in their home Dorothy has to find her way through the giant garden for help, but things get even worse when the unfriendly cause of this calamity appears. – Mark R. Hunter

A Man for All Seasons: A Play in Two Acts Paperback – April 14, 1990 by Robert Bolt (Author). 163 pages.

Consciences of Sir Thomas More and Henry VIII are poles apart in the religious conflict over the king's marriage to Anne Boleyn.

The Uses of Enchantment - The meaning and importance of fairy tales, by Bruno Bettelheim. 323 pages.

The great child psychologist [since disgraced] gives us a moving revelation of the enormous and irreplaceable value of fairy tales - how they educate, support and liberate the emotions of children.

Letters To Young Churches by J. B. Phillips 1960 with Introduction C.S Lewis. 225 pages.

A translation of the New Testament Epistles with introduction by C.S. Lewis. 

I got a couple of nice monetary gifts for Christmas, and I asked my brother John to squire me around town so I could put some of it to good use. He suggested we look up a new bookstore in Geronimo, a little town not far away, and I agreed. It is called Second Chance Books, and is in a sort of industrial-style strip mall. It was very basic; they sell books for $2 per pound, and there is an automatic checkout with a scale. The shelves and warehouse are very basic; in fact it is the closest place to Yesterday's Warehouse I've been to in years. No frills, and the selection seems to be made of the dross of library and bookstore closeouts, with the detritus of decades of once popular 'hottus shittus' publishing on shabby display. I find this very exciting; there is about one grain of gold to 999 grains of sand, and the hunt for that gold is what makes the search exciting. As you can see, I found a trove, as did John, and I left volumes behind that were marginal, but so cheap I was tempted. And there were shelves I was too tired to search. So for the first time in a while I have a nearby bookstore to whet my appetite, and have 'at least one interesting tomorrow to look forward to.' I got copies of two books I had sold before and several volumes connected to the Inklings, including Letters to Young Churches (the copy I found was in much better condition). I've wanted to get that Eric Shanower Oz book for years; finding it there was the surprise gem of the haul.

Wideo Wednesday: What I’ve Been Watching

I had pretty much hopped down off my Mark Twain hobbyhorse when this bobbed up in my Youtube feed.

Twain  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYQgCAldglI

It basically covers the same time period of fictional biographical The Innocents Abroad (1983). Narrated by Martin Sheen. It got me wondering in my head just what we can really think about someone like, say, Mark Twain? Can we say we are getting the accent marks correct? How much of his writing (especially unpublished) might just be venting, not only of righteous anger, but of dark thoughts such as anyone might have (especially as they age and lose loved ones), which, once purged onto paper, might leave the man himself melancholy but basically sound? Are (especially modern) critics simply determined to make him dark and ‘interesting’ and not merely a humorist? What sort of Twain might we envision if we emphasized the ‘bright’ notes, his better angels? The image of a sad crotchety Tolkien was influenced by Humphrey Carpenter’s unsympathetic biography for years; it might tell us more about HC than JRRT.

Also, I revisited Monsignor Quixote.

Quixote https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZeQGHt67fA

As I recalled in August of 2020: “I remember I began watching the [1987] adaptation with Alec Guinness and Leo McKern but missed parts of it. I finally caught up with it on YouTube, over 30 years later.” But I failed to mention it in my later consideration of Don Quixote and its influences (June 2025).

In it a Spanish priest, a supposed descendant of the famous Don, is promoted and sent forth from his simple life on a picaresque journey. Accompanied by his friend, a Communist ex-mayor whom he calls Sancho and driving in a beat-up old car he calls Rocinante, he must navigate the windmills and bullies of the modern world and the fallout of the Franco regime. His simplicity and innocence and faith are seen as a parallel to the original Quixote’s romantic ideals. 

Twain on the Brain

When I was growing up you couldn’t get away from Mark Twain, from the vintage card game ‘Authors’ to the 1970 animated TV movie A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court to the 1968 New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to the 1973 Reader’s Digest musical Tom Sawyer. Cheap hardcover editions of both Sawyer and Finn abounded at retail stores. They were seen as an easy introduction to classic American literature for the kiddies, embodying Romance (in both senses of the word) and Picaresque Adventure.

Then came the disillusionments of the Watergate Scandal and the Iran Hostage Crisis, and the American idea went into an eclipse. While never being de-throned from his position among literary circles, he became more problematic in social and pop cultural spheres. The ‘rancid’ and bitter aspects of Twain were emphasized to keep him more relatable and relevant, while his 219-time use of the n-word in Huckleberry Finn made his promotion as a ‘children’s author’ controversial to say the least.

David Fleming, our Creative Writing teacher in high school, was a huge proponent of his works, but I remember even then that the marginalization of Twain (and of the Western Canon) seemed to have begun. It all appears to have culminated in the assessment of Futurama’s Big Brain of Tom Sawyer (and by extension Mark Twain’s entire output) as a ‘corny slice of Americana.’

Despite all early promptings, I came to reading Twain fairly late in the game, but then my interest kind of took off. It was certainly helped by the Ken Burns 2001 documentary on Mark Twain, which helped contextualize both the man and his works. Before that I just sort of slid easily along on the common incidents and tropes, made familiar by a dozen adaptations: whitewashing a fence, pretending to be dead and showing up at your own funeral, lost in a cave, adventuring on a raft. “It was Injun Joe! He did it!” An eclipse of the sun and knights on bicycles. Riverboats navigating the Mississippi.

I was pleased to find the original sources of all these images and more. I can certainly see what prompted Mr. Fleming’s fascination with Twain, both life and works. Looking at him you see an image of the American character, with all its flaws and virtues, unquestionably ‘of a time’ but somehow timeless in nature, a comet blazing across the sky that will almost certainly come again. But in what form, and what will it see?

Into the Archive: Two from the Public Library Bookstore

Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain (Modern Library Classics)

Fashioned from the same experiences that would inspire the masterpiece Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twain’s most brilliant and most personal nonfiction work. It is at once an affectionate evocation of the vital river life in the steamboat era and a melancholy reminiscence of its passing after the Civil War, a priceless collection of humorous anecdotes and folktales, and a unique glimpse into Twain’s life before he began to write. – Abe Books (Modern Library Classics)

In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires by Radu Florescu and Raymond T. McNally (1994, Robson Books) 

Until recently most people thought Dracula was a creation of film & fiction. With the original publication of In Search of Dracula, the actual historical figure of Prince Vlad of Transylvania--better known as Vlad the Impaler--was rediscovered, & readers were introduced to one of the darkest figures of Eastern European history & folklore. Out of print for more than a decade, In Search of Dracula has now been completely rewritten & updated. This new edition includes entries from Bram Stoker's newly discovered diaries, the amazing tale of Nicolae Ceausescu's attempt to make Vlad a Romanian national hero, & a comprehensive examination of recent adaptations of the Dracula story in novels, on stage & on screen. For a member of the undead, Dracula has enjoyed a vibrant & ubiquitous life for the past century. Even more enduring & powerful a creation than Sherlock Holmes--with whom he shares similar late-Victorian popular literary origins--the Count continues to fascinate with his distinctive mixture of blood, sex & death. – Amazon

 

Since I’d been planning to walk down to the public library bookstore for a while (I actually had some cash in hand from my items in my sister’s garage sale), I figured today would be the day to do it while it was still a little cool from Wednesday’s rain. Accordingly, I set out at 9:30 AM and was back by 10:45 AM, just when it was getting to be 80 degrees. The coolth was over.

I was kind of surprised by that Twain book (it looked a lot like the cover I chose to illustrate my diary entry when I was reading it on Kindle, but it’s not), but I thought that coincidence and my recent engagement with Twain was enough of a sign to get it. And it was only $3. He’s always a good summer read.

So are vampires. I had read the paperback edition of In Search of Dracula long ago in the day but had since given it back to John to be in his horror archive. The allure of this updated (1994) softcover edition at $2 made it an easy buy. I feel the need to stock up on culture before society crumbles. I mean crumbles any more.

 

Mark+Joan=Love?

I got Personal Recollection of Joan of Arc yesterday, and though I did not feel I could immediately apply myself to it because of other current reading, I read Mark Twain’s 1904 essay/appendix as an appetizer. I was suddenly confronted with the conundrum of Author’s Mystique, the Cult of Personality and whether Biography should be used to enlighten Literary Criticism, or Literary Criticism to enlighten Biography. Was Mark Twain ‘in love’ with Joan of Arc, and if so in what manner?

“Joan of Arc largely lacks the humor prevalent in Twain's other works, and it has a different tone and flow. He had a personal fascination with Joan of Arc which began in the early 1850s when he found a leaf from her biography and asked his brother Henry if she was a real person. Cultural historian Ted Gioia notes that Twain was "raised in a Southern culture that was deeply suspicious of – and sometimes openly hostile to – Roman Catholicism", but that in the novel Twain comes across as passionately Catholic.

“Twain based Joan of Arc's physical appearance on his daughter Suzy Clemens, as he remembered her at age 17. He began writing the novel late in 1892, then set it aside until 1894; he finished the manuscript in 1895. He serialized an abridged version for magazine publication, then published the full-length book in 1896.

“However, 20th-century critics have not favored Recollections, and it is hardly read or acknowledged in the mainstream today, especially compared to Twain's comedic works such as Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'n Head Wilson, and Tom Sawyer.

“In the preface to his play Saint Joan, G. B. Shaw accused Twain of being "infatuated" with Joan of Arc. Shaw says that Twain "romanticizes" the story of Joan, reproducing a legend that the English deliberately rigged the trial to find her guilty of witchcraft and heresy. Recent study of the trial transcripts, however, suggests that Twain's depiction may have been closer to the truth than Shaw was willing to accept.

“Susan Harris expresses befuddlement at this work's placement in Twain's body of works: "By the time Twain is writing Recollections, he's not a believer. He is anti-Catholic, and he doesn't like the French. So he writes a book about a French-Catholic-martyr? Ostensibly, it doesn't make a lot of sense." - Wikipedia

“Twain's "Angelfish":

• A Club for Girls: Near the end of his life, Twain formed a club for girls aged 10-16, whom he called his "angel-fish". He claimed this "Aquarium Club" was his "life's chief delight,".
• Nostalgia and Longing: Some speculate his interest stemmed from loneliness and a longing for grandchildren, as his own daughters were grown and his favorite, Suzy, had passed away.
• Idealized Innocence: Twain described the girls as "pretty and sweet and naive and innocent—dear young creatures to whom life is a perfect joy". 

“While Twain's book on Joan of Arc showcases his deep admiration for her, his relationship with his "angel-fish" has raised questions and discussions about the nature of his intentions and the historical context of his actions.” – AI summation.

So the academic (if gossipy) question remains. What was the relationship of Joan of Arc to Mark Twain’s ‘angel-fish’, and both to his deceased daughter Suzy? It is easy to see that an elderly, bleak, bitter man might well want to warm himself close to the fire of youth, beauty, innocence, even of faith. Boys were too mawkish to befriend, in a way rivals. Joan of Arc was historical, true, and safely dead, not likely to fade or disappoint, or become dangerously too real or too personal.

Mark Twain, when all is said and done, was a Victorian gentleman (if somewhat provincial), and the conventions of society sat uneasily upon him. But deeper than those were his convictions of morality, of human decency. If you had confronted him with the modern idea that his hero-worship (either of Joan of Arc or of his angel-fish) were just sublimations of his own sexual desires, he would no doubt be appalled – not by the notion that it might be true, but by the fact that you were so depraved as to make the suggestion.

His image of Joan might well be entangled with idealized memories of his dead daughter; after all, he used Suzy to ‘plug in the gaps in the DNA’ to recreate Joan. A fact that would add another layer of infamy (in his eyes) to the vile canard. Some might point out, whatever Mark Twain’s feelings about the matter, that down at the root of things ‘there must be something inside.’

All of which is neither here nor there as far as the actual book is concerned, an entanglement of ‘the personal heresy’ (the idea that a piece of imaginative writing is primarily a reflection of the author's personality, not a separate creation to be judged on its own merits). And this is an imaginative recreation of a historical personality and events. It should be judged according to its own literary merits, not on some pop-psychological analysis of its author and his supposed motives. Modern critics might well want to discredit Joan among his creations; it seems to have too much faith to fit in with their modern notions of Twain as an acerbic social commentator, so that Joan is a 12-year moment of weakness, an aberration that does not fit in with their image (idol?) of Twain. He might have - gasp! - actually believed in something ideal.

All of which is neither here nor there, as I say. But the idea of the personal heresy will color what I read, I’m afraid, whether I will or no. It has become the dominant tool of literary criticism in modern times, ubiquitous, made spicy by personal gossip and the inquisitorial nature of social criticism. Whose flag can we safely adhere to? Mark Twain found his in Joan of Arc.

Into the Archive: Book'em

Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (Dover Thrift Editions: Classic Novels) Paperback (329 pages)

Regarded by many as the most luminous example of Mark Twain's work, this fictional biography of Joan of Arc was purportedly written by Joan's page and secretary — Sieur Louis de Conté. (Twain's alter ego even shared the author's same initials — S. L. C.) Told from the viewpoint of this lifelong friend, the historical novel is a panorama of stirring scenes and marvel of pageantry — from Joan's early childhood in Domremy and her touching story of the voices, to the fight for Orleans, the taking of Tourelles and Jargeau, and the splendid march to Rheims.
But above all, the work is an amazing record that disclosed Twain's unrestrained admiration of the French heroine's nobility of character. Throughout his life, she remained his favorite historical figure — "the most innocent, the most lovely, the most adorable child the ages have produced."
Completed when the author was nearly sixty, the book reveals a splendidly expressive side of Twain, who wrote, "I like the Joan of Arc best of all my books; & it is the best; I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others: 12 years of preparation & 2 years of writing. The others needed no preparation, and  got none."
Matchless in its workmanship, this lesser work will charm — and delightfully surprise — admirers and devotees of the great American author. - Amazon

The Shadow Library: Mark Twain Said It All

All men have heard of the Mormon Bible, but few except the “elect” have seen it, or, at least, taken the trouble to read it. I brought away a copy from Salt Lake. The book is a curiosity to me, it is such a pretentious affair, and yet so “slow,” so sleepy; such an insipid mess of inspiration. It is chloroform in print. If Joseph Smith composed this book, the act was a miracle—keeping awake while he did it was, at any rate. If he, according to tradition, merely translated it from certain ancient and mysteriously-engraved plates of copper, which he declares he found under a stone, in an out-of-the-way locality, the work of translating was equally a miracle, for the same reason.

The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament. The author labored to give his words and phrases the quaint, old-fashioned sound and structure of our King James’s translation of the Scriptures; and the result is a mongrel—half modern glibness, and half ancient simplicity and gravity. The latter is awkward and constrained; the former natural, but grotesque by the contrast. Whenever he found his speech growing too modern—which was about every sentence or two—he ladled in a few such Scriptural phrases as “exceeding sore,” “and it came to pass,” etc., and made things satisfactory again. “And it came to pass” was his pet. If he had left that out, his Bible would have been only a pamphlet.

…

The Mormon Bible is rather stupid and tiresome to read, but there is nothing vicious in its teachings. Its code of morals is unobjectionable—it is “smouched” from the New Testament and no credit given.

-         Mark Twain, from Roughing It, Chapter 16

["smouched" = to get by stealing or trickery; filched; pilfered]

 

So Many Notes, Your Majesty

The Annotated Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

(“The Four Novels and Fifty-Six Short Stories Complete. Lavishly illustrated with maps, diagrams, photographs, and drawings. Edited, with an Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography by William S. Baring-Gould.”) Includes the famous Sidney Paget illustrations. This volume made all my other Sherlock Holmes books superfluous, including a boxed set of paperbacks (from John’s collection) and a hardback with all the Strand illustrations. It seems superfluous to explain the Sherlock Holmes mythos; I can only say it deeply influenced me from my childhood on up, from the Basil Rathbone movies to dozens of cartoon episodes. The unflappable eccentric smarty-pants seemed an admirable role model. Where’s my magnifying glass?

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated Edition. Hardback.

The Annotated Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.

With the classic Charles Leech illustrations, and many others. With an Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography by Michael Patrick Hearn. Another lifelong influence, with no less than three animated adaptations during my childhood, as well as the Alastair Sim movie. Inescapable at Christmas time. The annotations clarify many of the everyday Victorian references and explicate some of the more obscure humor.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Classic. Novel. Annotated. Hardback.

The Annotated Dracula, by Bram Stoker.

Introduction, Notes, and Bibliography by Leonard Wolf (of “A Dream of Dracula” fame), with Illustrations by Satty, as well as many contemporary pictures to illustrate places and items of the time, and frames from film adaptations of the book. I must admit I out-and-out stole this book. I stole many library books when I was in high school. A surprising number, really. I can only plead that I was a very insecure person at the time (even more insecure than I am now, I mean), I believed no-one else cared for the books more than I, and I had already seen many of my favorite books vanish into the past and I saw no means of recovering them, (this was so long before ordering over the internet was a concept, and even before I considered trying to order them from a bookstore – besides which, I was so poor). That being said, I knew it was wrong, and it became a terrible habit, to where I was even taking books I didn’t care about that much. But to get back to the book, it allowed me to finally get into Dracula, and is still the only copy I care to read it in. Wolf’s annotations are like having a murmuring expert’s voice feeding you smooth information as you read and coming to your aid when things are most puzzling. It’s no wonder I was enamored. [My copy lacks this jacket.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated. Novel. Hardback.

The Annotated Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley.

Annotated by Leonard Wolf, terrible art by Marcia Huyette. With Maps, Drawings, and Photographs. The text is the original 1818 edition, before Mary tarted it up and softened it for the 1831 edition. The annotations enliven the somewhat turgid prose, and act as a semi-biography of Mary as it explores her influences and allusions. Just the sort of smarty-pants stuff I like to read. It is sort of a companion counterpart to “The Annotated Dracula”, and I found it years later (quite recently, in fact) at Half-Price books. Reading it has been like a blast from the past; it is one of those books that I sometimes find that I WOULD have read at a certain period if it had been available to me. The boobies in the Huyette 70’s-style ‘art’ explain why it wasn’t at high school. I used to have a paperback with a Karloff-inspired cover. This made it obsolete. [My copy lacks this jacket.]

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Novel. Annotated. Hardback.

The Annotated Mother Goose, with an Introduction and Notes by William S. Baring Gould and Cecil Baring-Gould.

“Illustrated by Caldecott, Crane, Greenaway, Rackham, Parrish, and Historical Woodcuts.” Read this first in the college library, and as soon as I found a copy, bought it. An exhaustive collection of the classic rhymes, both famous and obscure, and fascinating notes on the folklore, history, and local associations that they invoke. Rivalled only by Iona and Peter Opie’s Oxford collection and surpasses them in illustration. A glorious browser and resource. I remember having Kenny read from it to me while I washed dishes, on the eve of him leaving for Florida. There’s a tape recording of this somewhere in my stuff.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Folklore. Annotated. Hardback.

Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark”, Illustrated by Henry Holiday.

Includes “The Annotated Snark by Martin Gardner”, The Designs for the Snark by Charles Mitchell, The Listing of the Snark by Selwyn H. Goodacre” and was edited by James Tanis and John Dooley. I love the Snark; I had Kenny read it to me once while I cleaned up the garage. That was a thing I did: did people’s work for them so I could get them to read books that I thought they’d Enjoy. Mom read me most of “The Lord of the Rings” while I painted the house on Loop Drive before Kelsey was born. I bought this annotated edition at the college bookstore, where its jacket was already a little torn.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Humorous Poem. Annotated. Hardback.

The Annotated Ancient Mariner: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

“Illustrated by Gustave Dore, with an Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner.” I read this compelling supernatural ballad for the first time in high school and became entranced by its incantatory cadence’s wild imagery. Dore was already pretty familiar to me through the reproduction of his work in just about every “monster” book produced in the 70’s (copyright free). That I could find them in an inexpensive annotated edition at Half-Price Books was cake. I loves me an annotated edition. Besides the Notes (revealing much about Coleridge and his circle) there are some large reproductions of the plates, showing off the fine detail.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Poetry. Annotated. Hardback.

 The Annotated Brothers Grimm, Edited with a Preface and Notes by Maria Tatar.

Not the complete Grimm’s fairy tales of course, but the major stories, and a few of the stranger and more problematic tales. I used to have a complete edition, put together by Jack Zipes, which I gave to Kameron. I have to either get it back (no matter that it’s a worse shape now) or find another copy (not difficult; it turns up at Half-Price fairly regularly). Anyway, full of good notes and classic illustrators, like Hermann Vogel. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated Edition. Fairy Tales. Hardback.

The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition, By Lewis Carroll.

Introduction and Notes by Martin Gardner. Original Illustrations by John Tenniel. Has both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. Includes the deleted section, A Wasp in a Wig. A portion devoted to screen adaptations of Alice. There were older versions of this (I had one), but this is Definitive. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers. Alice is just one of those cultural milestones that has no need of explanation, though I have to admit I never read the actual book until high school; Tenniel’s illustrations freaked me out a little when I was young.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated. Children’s Book. Hardback.

The Annotated Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Patrick Hearn. Preface by Martin Gardner. Pictures by W. W. Denslow. The Wizard of Oz is foundational to my imagination, from the yearly showing of the MGM movie to my first Whitman copy of the book when I could hardly even read to the constant new editions I buy when a brilliant new illustrator interprets it. I wanted to get an older edition of this annotated but I’m glad I didn’t; this is much prettier. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers. Much about Baum and Oz, much about Denslow, much about the cultural impact of Oz. A scholarly and insightful look at a childhood classic.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated Edition. Novel. Hardback.

The Annotated Peter Pan: The Centennial Edition, by J. M. Barrie.

Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Maria Tatar. Illustrated from many different editions, and photos from Barrie’s life. As a book, “Peter Pan” has gone through some strange permutations, including “The Little White Bird”, “Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens”, and the play itself, which came before this novelized version. There is much biographical detail about Barrie and his career, and what might seem his almost cursed relationship with the family of the boy that Peter was based on. I had little to do with “Peter Pan” beyond the Disney version for years (Mom had some old kids records’ she got as a little girl when the movie just came out; we played them quite a bit when we were kids. I remember how wistful she was when ‘Your Mother and Mine’ played; probably thinking about her relationship with Nanny). In college I became quite interested in the history of children’s literature, especially that period that started to romanticize childhood, so I read the book at last, confusing as its history was. This edition also addresses its cultural impact, its TV and movie adaptations, and psychological insights. A meditation on life, death, and the poignant wonder and sterility of never growing up. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated Edition. Children’s Book. Hardback.

The Annotated Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame.

Edited with a Preface and Notes by Annie Gauger. Introduction by Brian Jacques. While I had known Mr. Toad since at least the 1970 Rankin/Bass TV show and the Disney Big Golden book in 3^rd grade, I never actually read the novel until middle school, when I was enchanted as much by the poetic pastorals of the River and Woods as by the comic adventures of Toad. The tension that Mole feels between the wanderlust and adventure of Toad and the domesticity usually exemplified by Rat and his comfy lodgings is the same force that constantly bedeviled Grahame and led to his writing works in escapist style as he worked a dreary job in the Bank of England. The headstrong Toad was based on his son Alistair, who, almost in a tradition of such literary children, died an early tragic death at the age of 20. This edition is full of illustrations from all over (especially by Ernest Shepherd) and amounts to a biography of Grahame almost on its own. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated Edition. Children’s Classic. Hardback.

The Annotated Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. Edited with an Introduction and Notes by Michael Patrick Hearn.

Illustrated by F. W. Kemble and with photographs and other drawings. I didn’t really care much for Mark Twain’s work through the years, except for a sneaky attachment to the Classics Illustrated “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court”, and that was more for the ambiance of knights and castles. There was no Fantasy in Tom Sawyer, either, except if you count what went on in that romantic noodle of his. There was, of course, “The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, an American live-action and animated television series that originally aired on NBC from September 15, 1968, through February 23, 1969,” but that hardly counts. There was of course “Tom Sawyer … a 1973 American musical film adaptation of Mark Twain's 1876 boyhood adventure story, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, directed by Don Taylor and starring Johnny Whitaker as the titular character, Jodie Foster as Becky Thatcher, and Jeff East as Huckleberry Finn. The film was produced by Reader's Digest. The film's screenplay and songs were written by Robert B. Sherman and Richard M. Sherman who would go on to provide more award-winning music for the 1974 sequel Huckleberry Finn.” – Wikipedia. But that was hardly a recommendation. We also had two Whitman’s Classics copies of the books. As I got older, I guess I considered Huckleberry Finn more in Mike’s wheelhouse of American literature. Its very status as a classic scared me off. Of course, I eventually read ‘Finn’ (I don’t think I’ve ever brought myself to have a complete read-through of ‘Tom’[though I have now, as of September 2020]), and this Annotated edition certainly helped clinch it for me. I’ve read quite a bit of Twain now. A journey by raft is well-cemented into my mind’s playing. One of the beautiful Norton editions, with gilded covers.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Classic. Annotated. Hardback.

The Annotated Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. Illustrated by Jules Feiffer.

Annotations by Leonard S. Marcus. Ironically, not one of the beautiful Norton editions. “The Phantom Tollbooth is a children's fantasy adventure novel written by Norton Juster with illustrations by Jules Feiffer, published in 1961 by Random House (USA). It tells the story of a bored young boy named Milo who unexpectedly receives a magic tollbooth one afternoon and, having nothing better to do, drives through it in his toy car, transporting him to the Kingdom of Wisdom, once prosperous but now troubled. There, he acquires two faithful companions and goes on a quest to restore to the kingdom its exiled princesses—named Rhyme and Reason—from the Castle in the Air. In the process, he learns valuable lessons, finding a love of learning.” – Wikipedia. A modern classic, most popular during the 60’s and 70’s (There was a movie animation adaptation by Chuck Jones in 1970, just too early for us to see it; watched it on TMC years later. Feiffer called it ‘drivel’. Starred Butch Patrick – Eddie Munster and Lidsville - as hero Milo.) This edition replaced a raggedy old Book Club edition.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated. Children’s Classic. Hardback.

The Screwtape Letters: Annotated Edition, by C. S. Lewis.

Annotations by Paul McCusker. It was Lewis, so I had to have it, though at this point there is little new that the notes can reveal to me. “[I] delight in such things, if they were accurate; I like to have books filled with things that I already know, set out fair and square with no contradictions.” – Not-Quite-Tolkien. I like an annotated edition. No illustrations, though, not even photos.

Ranking: Essential.

File Code: Annotated Edition. Hardback.