Twain scholars headed to the Farm to dissect author's life

A conference on "Mark Twain at the Turn of the Century, 1890-1910," to be held May 14-15, will bring leading Twain scholars from the United States and Britain to the Stanford and University of California-Santa Cruz campuses.

"Twain is an extraordinarily rich writer, one who speaks to contemporary concerns as much as he spoke to the concerns of previous generations," said Shelley Fisher Fishkin, professor of English and director of the Program in American Studies at Stanford. Fishkin, who organized the conference with Forrest Robinson, professor of American studies at UC-Santa Cruz, is editor of the 29-volume Oxford Mark Twain and author of Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture.

The conference will focus on the last two decades of Twain's life and topics including the author's critiques of imperialism, anti-Semitism, racism and globalization. "As scholars have become more engaged by issues of imperialism and issues of gender, race and prejudice, Twain has proven to be extremely interesting," said Fishkin, who will speak Saturday at UC-Santa Cruz on "Mark Twain and the Jews."

Hilton Obenzinger, associate director of Honors Writing and a lecturer in English, also will speak Saturday on "Better Dreams: Political Satire and Twain's Final 'Exploding' Novel." A full conference schedule can be found on the Program in American Studies website at www.stanford.edu/group/HSP/AmStud/spec_events.html.

The joint conference is sponsored by the Program in American Studies, the Office of the Dean of Humanities and Sciences, the English Department and the Humanities Center at Stanford; the Humanities Institute, the Humanities Division, the Department of Literature and the Department of American Studies at UC-Santa Cruz; and the Delmas Foundation. The conference is open to the public without charge.