Coming Soon: Southern Queen

Above, a first glimpse of the cover of my new book, Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century, to be published Summer 2011 by Continuum. Here's the blurb:

In the nineteenth century, there were few cities in the world more remarkable than New Orleans. Cosmopolitan, alluring, dangerous – a profound mélange of Old World sensibilities and New World possibilities – it was a place unlike anywhere else in America. Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century examines the city’s rise and fall in this crucible period, charting its transformation from a small colonial backwater on the banks of the Mississippi, through the apex of its power and influence in the antebellum years, to the years of poverty and hardship that followed the Civil War. It is a story characterised by the city’s reputation for decadence, exoticism and illicit pleasures – the glittering carnival mask that the Big Easy still presents to the world. But it is also a story punctuated by a host of disasters that provide stark counterpoints to the glamour of Mardi Gras. Throughout the nineteenth century, the city that care was supposed to forget was visited by wars, epidemics, riots, and – from slavery to Reconstruction and beyond – continual and violent racial tension. Yet through it all, the Southern Queen developed a profound romantic appeal that proved irresistible to an astonishing cast of visitors - travelers, writers, artists and musicians of every kind. It was, in short, an extraordinary time in the history of an extraordinary place. This is the untold story of the life and times of nineteenth century New Orleans, and it is an account that illuminates our understanding not just of the past, but of the present and future of one of America’s most iconic places.

I'll update with a firm release date when it's available. In the meantime, more information is available on the Continuum website, and you can preorder from Amazon here (or here, if you're in the UK).

Review: Louisiana History

River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain has been reviewed by Daniel Claro in Louisiana History (50:2, Spring 2009). He writes, "this book succeeds in depicting the wonderfully rich literary context that inspired and informed Twain's career."

For a sneak preview of what I'm currently working on, click here.

BBC Radio Scotland: The Book Café - Audio

My conversation with BBC Radio Scotland's Book Café is now up on the iPlayer. Thanks to all involved. Alternatively, you can access the audio of my segment here.

BBC Radio Scotland: The Book Café

This Monday (July 19th) I'll be appearing on BBC Radio Scotland's Book Café to talk about Mark Twain, his legacy, and the forthcoming publication of his autobiography. It starts at 1.15. You can listen live here, and I'll throw up an iPlayer link after the broadcast. More information available here:

And as the hundred year ban on publishing Mark Twain's memoirs ends, John Freeman, Editor of Granta Magazine, and Twain expert Dr. Tom Smith will be joining Clare to explain the ban and discuss the legacy of the writer hailed by William Faulkner as 'the father of American literature'.

Review: Journal of Southern History

River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain has been reviewed by James E. Seelye in the Journal of Southern History (May 2010). He writes:

"River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi before Mark Twain by Thomas Ruys Smith is an engaging guide to changing conceptions of the Mississippi River during the antebellum period. Smith's accessible and well-written narrative catalogs the variety of views and commentary about the "American Nile" from a range of individuals, including writers, foreign visitors, and U.S. presidents. One of the work's biggest strengths is the wide spectrum of views that Smith examines [...] Smith uses an impressive array of primary sources by those with firsthand knowledge of or associations with the Mississippi River [...] Cultural historians will find the book to be a solid portrait of antebellum life along the Mississippi River; those interested in historical memory will find the study especially useful."

Review: Journal of the Early Republic

River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain has been reviewed in the Journal of the Early Republic. Ann Ostendorf writes:

"Thomas Ruys Smith examines the meaning of the river in the antebellum American imagination. Using literary analysis, Smith unpacks the multitude of written and visual representations of the river as it flowed through American culture and consciousness [...] Smith shows how Twain's postbellum fascination with the literary Mississippi emerged out of decades of prior cultural appropriations [...] Smith's extensive uses of primary-source quotations are often delightfully expressive of contemporary worldviews [...] Ultimately, this work is a creative expression of the nineteenth-century American mind and culture through the ways people of that era viewed this iconic natural resource."

British Association for American Studies Conference, April 8-11 2010

I'm organizing the international British Association for American Studies Conference 2010, running April 8-11 at the University of East Anglia in the UK. The final programme can be found here, and you can keep up to date with conference news on the School of American Studies blog, Containing Multitudes. Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Advance Praise for Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men

Advance praise for Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men: Nineteenth-Century Mississippi River Gambling Stories, published May 2010 by Louisiana State University Press:

“Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men is the most significant collection of riverlore published in decades. Thomas Ruys Smith’s wide-ranging anthology includes selections from high and low culture, demonstrating the evolution of gambling from a widely feared part of the early river trade to a romanticized American cultural icon. This collection is essential to understanding the history of gambling in America and solidifies Smith’s reputation as the leading cultural historian of American river life.”

—Thomas C. Buchanan, author of Black Life on the Mississippi: Slaves, Free Blacks, and the Western Steamboat World

“The Mississippi riverboat gambler ranks alongside the mountain man, frontier scout, patriot militiaman, borderlands outlaw, and cowboy as an archetypal American folk hero. Yet the scholarly literature of the riverboat gambler is sparse compared to that of his folkloric colleagues. Thomas Ruys Smith helps to correct this slight in Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men. Smith has gathered together a splendid collection of both literary and historical writings (and combinations thereof) that tell the exciting story of this nineteenth-century icon. Scholars and laymen alike will enjoy sitting back and reading these engaging tales.”

—Michael Allen, author of Rodeo Cowboys In The North American Imagination

Available now from Amazon.

Review: Southern Literary Journal

River of Dreams has been reviewed by Scott Romine in the Southern Literary Journal, as part of a longer essay, "The Nature of the South" (42:1, Fall 2009). He writes:

River of Dreams is a rich study, splendidly researched and elegantly written. Although its subtitle and blurb from Louis Budd position it relative to Mark Twain, the book’s true achievement lies in its nuanced account of the “countless [antebellum] stories . . . told in countless ways about the giant river that bisected America” (194). If, as Budd suggests, River of Dreams should be required reading for readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it is equally valuable to students of antebellum culture [...] archivally and synthetically rich—indeed, it is quite dazzling.

You can read the full review here.

Blacklegs... in the LSU Press Spring 2010 Catalog

Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men (coming May 2010) in the Louisiana State University Press Catalog, Spring 2010 (available here). Click for a bigger version of the image.

Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men: A First Glimpse

Coming May 2010. In the meantime, here's the official site on the Louisiana State University Press website. And here are the product pages for Blacklegs... on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. More information as it emerges.

European Journal of American Culture - 'Dead Men Tell No Tales': Outlaw John A. Murrell on the Antebellum Stage

Charles Burke

My article, "'Dead Men Tell No Tales': outlaw John A. Murrell on the antebellum stage" has been published in the European Journal of American Culture. For those who are interested, the Harvard Theatre Collection catalogue reference for the manuscript written by Nathaniel Harrington Bannister that inspired this article can be found here. This is the abstract:

Abstract

Outlaw John A. Murrell, credited with the planning of a failed slave uprising in Mississippi in 1835, was a significant figure in antebellum popular culture. Previously unrecognized, however, is his use as a character on the antebellum stage. Proof of his employment in this role can be found in the Harvard Theatre Collection, home to a hitherto unidentified manuscript copy of a melodrama entitled ‘Murrell, the Pirate – A Play in Three Acts’. In this article, its creator is identified as Nathaniel Harrington Bannister, a significant pre-war actor-playwright. An exploration of its performance history reveals its significance in a variety of ways. It highlights the degree to which John Murrell was an adaptable and ambiguous antebellum villain. It helps to illuminate the life and career of Bannister and his contribution to the American stage. It provides new insights into the life and career of Charles Burke, another significant actor-playwright of the antebellum years who developed an important connection to ‘Murrell, the Pirate’. And because of Burke's association with the play, it also becomes plausible to place it as an important step on the road in the development of Joseph Jefferson III's production of ‘Rip Van Winkle’, one of the most successful and influential nineteenth century American plays.

And the full article is available here. In the forthcoming months I intend to make all of my articles and chapters available in this way.

Amelia Green(e), widow of both John Augustus Stone and Nathaniel Harrington Bannister

Review: American Literary Scholarship

River of Dreams has been mentioned in Alan Gribben's essay on Mark Twain in the 2007 edition of American Literary Scholarship. Here's what he had to say about it:

Material Culture

My review essay, "Before the Deluge: Reading, Writing and Rebuilding New Orleans", has been published in the Fall 2009 edition of Material Culture: The Journal of the Pioneer American Society. You can take a look at the contents page here. And here's the abstract:

Before the Deluge: Reading, Writing and Rebuilding New Orleans — A special comparative review of several books focusing on the city of New Orleans

By Thomas Ruys Smith, School of American Studies, University of East Anglia, UK

This review essay examines four recent books concerned with the history of New Orleans. Though their approaches and focuses vary – from nineteenth century memoir to historical geography to tourism studies – all four volumes offer a variety of insights into the development of the city. In particular, they offer readings of the city’s evolution that help to interpret the devastations of Hurricane Katrina in August 2005 and give a timely sense of perspective to the ongoing attempts to rebuild New Orleans.

Update: full article now available here.

Elmira 2009: The Sixth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies

I've just got back from Elmira College, host of The Sixth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies, where I delivered the paper: "The Mississippi Was A Virgin Field: Mark Twain and Postbellum River Writings, 1865-1875."

More publication news coming soon.

Coming Soon: Blacklegs, Card Sharps & Confidence Man

From Edward Eggleston's The End of the World

Coming soon from Louisiana State University Press, my edited collection: Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men: Nineteenth Century Gambling Stories from the Mississippi River. Arriving Spring 2010. More details as they're available.

BAAS 2009: "The Mississippi was a virgin field"

From Edward King's Great South

At this year's British Association for American Studies conference (University of Nottingham, April 16-19) I gave the paper: '"The Mississippi was a virgin field": Mark Twain and Postbellum River Writings, 1865-1876.' The abstract is available here. It's part of my ongoing endeavour to think about Twain's relationship with the Mississippi contextually. I'll be developing these ideas later this year at the Sixth International Conference on the State of Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, August 6-8 2009. 

On the subject of BAAS, I'm also organising next year's conference at the University of East Anglia, April 8-11 2010. More information is available here.

Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing

My chapter on the Mississippi ("The Mississippi River as Site and Symbol") has been published in the Cambridge Companion to American Travel Writing (Cambridge University Press, 2009), edited by Alfred Bendixen and Judith Hamera. There are links to Amazon in the sidebar.

Journal of American Studies

My review of Thomas Buchanan's excellent Black Life on the Mississippi (University of North Carolina Press, 2004) has been published in the Journal of American Studies, 42:2 (August 2008), 358. It's available online here, and as a PDF here. Alternatively, you can simply read it below:

In Uncle Tom's Cabin (1851) Harriet Beecher Stowe produced one of the defining antebellum descriptions of the Mississippi: “Those turbid waters, hurrying, foaming, tearing along … Would that they did not also bear along a more fearful freight, the tears of the oppressed, the sighs of the helpless.” In this essential social history of black life on the Mississippi, Thomas Buchanan proves that although oppressed, the slave and free black men and women who lived and worked on the river were far from helpless. Alongside the familiar story of bondage and liberation, Buchanan invites his readers to enter the hitherto hidden “Mississippi world that slaves, and their free black allies, created amid the attempts of masters to control their labor and family lives.” As well as fitting a particularly large piece into the puzzle of antebellum river life, Buchanan's treatment of these unexamined aspects of African American experience should significantly influence conceptions of slavery and free black life far more widely. This was a world, as Buchanan describes it, of “secrets and dreams”: concealed communication networks, acts of resistance and resilience, sporadic rascality, music, escape, struggle for postbellum legal rights, and, above all, grinding work.

Buchanan's research is impeccable. Before now, readily available material concerning black life on the Mississippi was negligible. He has made good use of antebellum travel narratives, and even better use of court records and slave testimonies – particularly that of steamboat waiter and escapee William Wells Brown, whose story is woven into each chapter. Perhaps surprising, alongside the miseries of slavery and the dangers of steamboat life, is the powerful appeal that the river held for many of its black workers – strikingly similar to that which Mark Twain described working on him and his childhood friends. As ex-slave John Parker remembered, the Mississippi attracted him “like a magnet”: “as soon as I was free to move in my own selected direction I made straight for the river.” Two reservations: Buchanan is too swift to dismiss Twain (yet makes no mention of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) or the character of Roxana and her experiences as steamboat chambermaid). Similarly, he seems to ignore the fact that P. B. S. Pinchback, the first black governor in America's history, was also an apprentice and partner to that most famous riverboat gambler, George Devol. But this is unreservedly an important book – vital for students of the Mississippi and relevant far more widely.

Press Cuttings

A series of press cuttings from my time in Kirkwood and Hannibal:

The Webster-Kirkwood Times:

Hannibal Magazine:

The Hannibal Courier-Post:

The Fence Painter:

The Mark Twain and the Mississippi River Symposium, L to R: Conor Henley, Lawrence Howe, Thomas Ruys Smith, Bruce Michelson, Tom Quirk:

And finally, my appearance on KHQA television (with a slightly peculiar transcription):