Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings

by Mark Twain

Publisher:

Harper Perennial

, 2013

Overview

"The most impressive contribution to books by Mark Twain since The Mysterious Stranger of 1916...The attitude is that of Swift, the intellectual contempt is that of Voltaire, and the imagination is that of one of the great masters of American writing."—New York Times Book Review

Virtually none of the material in Letters from the Earth was published in Twain’s lifetime and the manuscript was only approved by his executors in 1962. This is vintage Twain—sharp, witty, imaginative, wildly funny. His voice is as vigorous and blistering as ever, capable of surprising truth and provoking laughter in the most unlikely places. 

In this collection, he presents himself as the Father of History, reviewing and interpreting events from the garden of Eden through the Fall and the Flood, translating the papers of Adam and his descendants down through the generations. There are comments on James Fenimore Cooper, English architecture, and the civilization of the French, as well as proposals for a simplified alphabet and a parody of books on etiquette. Letters from the Earth an exuberantly eclectic collection.

Product Details

• Title: Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings
• Author: Mark Twain
• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Print Publication Date: 2013
• Logos Release Date: 2024
• Pages: 58
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Ebook
• ISBNs: 9780062287267, 9780060518653, 0060518650, 0062287265
• Resource ID: LLS:9780062287267
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2026-05-05T09:57:46Z

About Mark Twain

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835–1910), who grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, and worked as a printer, riverboat pilot, newspaperman, and silver miner before his short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” brought him international attention. He would go on to write two of the great American novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and many other enduring works of fiction, satire, and travelogue. He is one of the most widely recognized figures in US history.