Bible According to Mark Twain Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood [Hardcover]

Howard G. Baetzhold (Editor)
HOWARD G. BAETZHOLD is Rebecca Clifton Reade Professor of English Emeritus at Butler University in Indianapolis and John S. Tuckey Memorial Research Fellow at Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm. An advisory board member and contributor to the Mark Twain Encyclopedia, he is currently an editor of Tales and Sketches of the Middle Years and Tales and Sketches of the Later Years for the Mark Twain Project.

Joseph B. McCullough (Editor)
JOSEPH B. McCULLOUGH is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. In addition to a number of articles on Mark Twain, he is the author of Hamlin Garland, and editor of Hamlin Garland's Tales of the Middle Border and Hamlin Garland's Son of the Middle Border.

This volume collects the most important writings by Mark Twain in which he used biblical settings, themes, and figures. Featuring Twain's singular portrayals of God, Adam, Eve, Satan, Methuselah, Shem, St. Peter, and others, the writings stand among Twain's most imaginative expressions of his views on human nature and humankind's relation to the Creator and the universe.

Composed over four decades (1871-1910), the writings range from farce to fantasy to satire, each one bearing the mark of Twain's unmistakable wit and insight. Among the many delights in store for readers are Adam and Eve's divergent accounts of their domestic troubles; Methuselah's discussion of an ancient version of baseball, complete with a parody of baseball jargon; Shem's hand-wringing account of how material shortages and labor troubles were hampering the progress of the ark his father, Noah, was building; a description of the disruptive actions of the fire-and-brimstone elƒ’