R. Kent Rasmussen – författare

'Africa for the Africans' was the name given to the extraordinary movement led by Jamaican Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940). Volumes I-VII of the "Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers" chronicled the Garvey movement that flourished in the United States during the 1920s. Now, the long-awaited African volumes of this edition demonstrate clearly the central role Africans played in the development of the Garvey phenomenon. The African volumes provide the first authoritative account of how Africans transformed Garveyism into an African social movement. The most extensive collection of documents ever gathered on the early African nationalism of the interwar period, Volume X provides a detailed chronicle of the spread of Garvey's call for African redemption throughout Africa.

A voracious pack-rat, Mark Twain hoarded his readers' letters as did few of his contemporaries. Dear Mark Twain collects 200 of these letters written by a diverse cross-section of correspondents from around the world - children, farmers, schoolteachers, businessmen, preachers, railroad clerks, inmates of mental institutions, con artists, and even a former president. It is a unique and groundbreaking book - the first published collection of reader letters to any writer of Mark Twain's time. Its contents afford a rare and exhilarating glimpse into the sensibilities of nineteenth-century people while revealing the impact Samuel L. Clemens had on his readers. Clemens' own and often startling comments and replies are also included. R. Kent Rasmussen's extensive research provides fascinating profiles of the correspondents, whose personal stories are often as interesting as their letters. Ranging from gushing fan appreciations and requests for help and advice to suggestions for writing projects and stinging criticisms, the letters are filled with perceptive insights, pathos, and unintentional but often riotous humor.Many are deeply moving, more than a few are hilarious, some may be shocking, but none are dull.

Here are more than 1,800 quotations, organized from A-to-Z, from America's consummate author - Mark Twain. A must-have for all Twain collectors, "The Quotable Mark Twain" is filled with his opinions about the people he knew, the places he's been, and the books he wrote, as well as more far-ranging topics, such as writers, billiards, smoking, his family, and more. The book also includes 150 illustrations taken from the original editions of Twain's publications, source citations for each quotation, an annotated bibliography, and a complete index.

One of the greatest American authors, Mark Twain holds a special position not only as a distinctly American cultural icon but also as a preeminent portrayer of youth. His famous writings about children and youthful themes are central to both his work and his popularity.The distinguished contributors to Mark Twain and Youth make Twain even more accessible to modern readers by fully exploring youth themes in both his life and his extensive writings. The volume’s twenty-six original essays offer new perspectives on such important subjects as Twain’s boyhood; his relationships with his siblings and his own children; his attitudes toward aging, gender roles, and slavery; the marketing, reception, teaching, and adaptation of his works; and youth themes in his individual novels--Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Pudd'nhead Wilson, and Joan of Arc. The book also includes a revealing foreword by actor Hal Holbrook, who has performed longer as “Mark Twain” than Samuel Clemens himself did.The book includes contributions by: Lawrence Berkove, John Bird, Jocelyn A. Chadwick, Joseph Csicsila, Hugh H. Davis, Mark Dawidziak, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, James Golden, Alan Gribben, Benjamin Griffin, Ronald Jenn, Holger Kersten, Andrew Levy, Cindy Lovell, Karen Lystra, Debra Ann MacComb, Peter Messent, Linda A. Morris, K. Patrick Ober, John R. Pascal, Lucy E. Rollin, Barbara Schmidt, David E. E. Sloane, Henry Sweets, Wendelinus Wurth.

One of the greatest American authors, Mark Twain holds a special position not only as a distinctly American cultural icon but also as a preeminent portrayer of youth. His famous writings about children and youthful themes are central to both his work and his popularity.The distinguished contributors to Mark Twain and Youth make Twain even more accessible to modern readers by fully exploring youth themes in both his life and his extensive writings. The volume’s twenty-six original essays offer new perspectives on such important subjects as Twain’s boyhood; his relationships with his siblings and his own children; his attitudes toward aging, gender roles, and slavery; the marketing, reception, teaching, and adaptation of his works; and youth themes in his individual novels--Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, Pudd'nhead Wilson, and Joan of Arc. The book also includes a revealing foreword by actor Hal Holbrook, who has performed longer as “Mark Twain” than Samuel Clemens himself did.The book includes contributions by: Lawrence Berkove, John Bird, Jocelyn A. Chadwick, Joseph Csicsila, Hugh H. Davis, Mark Dawidziak, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, James Golden, Alan Gribben, Benjamin Griffin, Ronald Jenn, Holger Kersten, Andrew Levy, Cindy Lovell, Karen Lystra, Debra Ann MacComb, Peter Messent, Linda A. Morris, K. Patrick Ober, John R. Pascal, Lucy E. Rollin, Barbara Schmidt, David E. E. Sloane, Henry Sweets, Wendelinus Wurth.

Mark Twain for Dog Lovers combines one of America’s most beloved authors and dogs. Twain specialist R. Kent Rasmussen traces the history of dogs in Twain’s life—from the ones he knew personally, like his daughter’s dog which he took in after she died, to the foreign dogs he saw on his travels around the world. Compiling 30 stories and extracts from Twain’s wiritings, Rasmussen tells a detailed an compelling story of Twain’s relationship with one of America’s favorite pets.

An enduring icon of American culture, Mark Twain is still widely read, carefully studied, and reinterpreted more than a century after his death. He is best known for humor and for his novels about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, but his writings extend far beyond the humorous and his immortal boy heroes. He wrote in a dizzying variety of genres, and much of his work resists categorization by exploring themes well outside the realms of normal human experience. Indeed, it would not be a stretch to say that some of his stories deal with characters and themes on the “far side” of human experience. His books such as The Prince and thePauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, for example, place protagonists in improbably dimensions of time and space, while tales from lesser-known works address the spooky, grisly, and inexplicable. It is a world in which buffalos climb trees, elephants eat Bibles, dogs bark Morse code messages, and human beings commit terrible crimes, make incredible mistakes, and play fantastic tricks on one another. This is an entertaining collection of both mysteries and marvels by an icon of American culture and literature.