1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910452727203321

Autore

Michelson Bruce <1948->

Titolo

Printer's devil [[electronic resource] ] : Mark Twain and the American publishing revolution / / Bruce Michelson

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2006

ISBN

0-520-93284-6

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (317 p.)

Disciplina

818/.409

Soggetti

Printing in literature

Printing - United States - History - 19th century

Publishers and publishing - United States - History - 19th century

Authors and publishers - United States - History - 19th century

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Sam Clemens and the printed word -- The mischief of the press -- "But now everybody goes everywhere" -- Huckleberry Finn and the American print revolution -- Mark Twain and the information age -- Afterword : Mark Twain for the next fifteen minutes.

Sommario/riassunto

Trained as a printer when still a boy, and thrilled throughout his life by the automation of printing and the headlong expansion of American publishing, Mark Twain wrote about the consequences of this revolution for culture and for personal identity. Printer's Devil is the first book to explore these themes in some of Mark Twain's best-known literary works, and in his most daring speculations-on American society, the modern condition, and the nature of the self. Playfully and anxiously, Mark Twain often thought about typeset words and published images as powerful forces-for political and moral change, personal riches and ruin, and epistemological turmoil. In his later years, Mark Twain wrote about the printing press as a center of metaphysical power, a force that could alter the fabric of reality. Studying these themes in Mark Twain's writings, Bruce Michelson also provides a fascinating overview of technological changes that transformed the American printing and publishing industries during Twain's lifetime,



changes that opened new possibilities for content, for speed of production, for the size and diversity of a potential audience, and for international fame. The story of Mark Twain's life and art, amid this media revolution, is a story with powerful implications for our own time, as we ride another wave of radical change: for printed texts, authors, truth, and consciousness.