Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Coming soon: Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth-Century America


Coming in September from Louisiana State University Press! Already available for preorder on Amazon. Here's the official blurb:

As the modern celebration of Christmas took shape across the nineteenth century, American writers gave it new meaning in the pages of countless books and magazines. Now, for the first time, this rich anthology brings together some of the most significant of those seasonal stories to retell a forgotten tale of Christmases past.

From the authors who helped define a national literary culture, to the popular sentimentalists who negotiated Christmas’s position at the center of family life, to the realists who looked to reshape American letters in the wake of the Civil War, and beyond: all varieties of American writers turned to Christmas as an inevitable and potent subject during this deeply formative period in the history of American literature. In Christmas Past, Thomas Ruys Smith brings together a diverse range of voices to showcase the many ways in which Christmas was imagined across the nineteenth century, offering images that echo down to the present. The introduction that frames the anthology provides a new literary history of Christmas, contextualizing the selections and making clear the links both between them and to the wider trajectory of American literature.

And here is advance praise from some of the giants of Christmas commentary:

Christmas Past is an invaluable contribution to not just to the study of Christmas stories but to the history of nineteenth-century American literature. — Gerry Bowler, author of The World Encyclopedia of Christmas and Santa Claus: A Biography
Christmas Past, with its lucid introduction, is a lovely and broad-ranging collection of nineteenth-century Christmas stories that ably illuminates the ways in which literary imaginations inspired and guided the creation of the 'old-fashioned' American Christmas.  Penne L. Restad, author of Christmas in America: A History
An eclectic and engrossing group of Christmas tales, vignettes, and reflections from America's deep nineteenth-century literary well. . . . There is something for everybody in this collection. — Robert E. May, author of Yuletide in Dixie: Slavery, Christmas, and Southern Memory 
An important contribution to the story of the American Christmas. Smith casts a wider net to include new and different voices from those most often contained in Christmas anthologies.  Tara Moore, author of Victorian Christmas in Print
Everyone believes that their own Christmas traditions are the 'real' ones, the ones that others can only palely imitate. Now, with Thomas Ruys Smith's Christmas Past, we can see that all Christmases are a series of overlapping circles of customs, beliefs, habits and stories. A work of scholarship, and also intensive poetry, Christmas Past gives us our own pasts back, and opens a path to exploring new futures.  Judith Flanders, author of Christmas: A Biography
More details soon!🎅

Friday, April 02, 2021

Louisiana Anthology Podcast

  
I also sat down with Bruce Magee, one of the hosts of the Louisiana Anthology Podcast, to discuss plenty of Mississippi River lore, framed around Sam Clemens's visit to Mardi Gras in 1859. It's available here in a variety of formats.

Massolit: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

 

A while ago I recorded a lecture on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for Massolit - it's available here for subscribers, with a short free preview for everyone else.


Wednesday, May 06, 2020

Deep Water: Association of University Presses Design Selection


Some nice news in the midst of everything: Deep Water has just been selected by the Association of University Presses for its amazing design by Michelle Neustrom at Louisiana State University Press in its annual book, jacket and journal show - specifically in the Scholarly Typographic category. More info and other selections here.

Tuesday, September 03, 2019

Deep Water: More Advance Praise


One final piece of pre-publication praise for Deep Water, from Professor Sarah Churchwell, author of a number of wonderful books, most recently Behold America: A History of America First and the American Dream:
“An exemplary work of American literary history, situating Mark Twain's writing about the river that so defined it within a wider understanding of how that river culture also shaped America. Comprehensively researched, sweeping in its scope, rich in its depths, Smith's book is an authoritative - likely definitive - primer for understanding what the deep waters of 'The Mississippi' meant to Twain, and still means to American culture.”
Available December 17!

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Louisiana State University Press

Friday, August 30, 2019

Deep Water: More Advance Praise



"Mark Twain knew a thing or two about the Mississippi River. So does Thomas Ruys Smith. In Deep Water, Smith intertwines the life and literature of Twain with the experiences and perspectives of many other people who lived, worked, and played along the Mississippi. Thanks to Smith, we now have a book that fully accounts for Twain’s complicated relationship with the Mississippi, a river that captured, and continues to capture, the American imagination."
—Michael Pasquier, editor of Gods of the Mississippi

"This is the story of a great American writer and a great American river, and the relationship between the two. Thomas Ruys Smith's elegantly written, deeply researched account brings us closer to Mark Twain by enriching our understanding of the river that flowed through his life and work. We see the Mississippi worlds that made Twain, and come away with immeasurably deeper insight into the worlds he made."
—Ben Tarnoff, author of The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers

"By embedding Twain's canonical work on the Mississippi River in the context of what numerous less celebrated others wrote on the same subject, Thomas Ruys Smith provides a valuable new perspective on Twain's vision, not just of the river, but of race, gender, imperialism, and national culture."
—Andrew Levy, author of Huck Finn's America: Mark Twain and the Era That Shaped His Masterpiece

Out December 17! Available for pre-order!

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Louisiana State University Press

Monday, August 26, 2019

History Today: Life on the Mississippi


I have a long article on the Mississippi in the September issue of History Today (Vol. 69, Issue 9). It was great to use some of the research for Deep Water in this way, and their production values are a delight, as you can see below! At least for now, it's available here

   

Friday, August 09, 2019

Deep Water: Advance Praise

Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain
Some advance praise for Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain (Louisiana State University Press, coming in December) from Professor Pete Messent:

"Thomas Ruys Smith’s book will be required reading for anyone interested in Mark Twain and / or Mississippi river culture of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Framing both Twain and the river in new and often unexpectedly rewarding ways, it ranges widely through biography, literature, history, geopolitics, music and other forms of popular culture, issues of national and transnational identity, and much, much, more besides. An outstanding contribution to its various fields."

Available for pre-order!

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Friday, April 26, 2019

Comparative American Studies


Very excited to announce that I'm now co-editing the journal Comparative American Studies with my UEA colleague Rachael McLennan. Here's our joint statement (click to make it bigger):


Friday, April 12, 2019

Coming soon! Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain


Coming late 2019: Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain! More updates soon

Update: looks like it's already available for preorder!

Amazon UK

Amazon US

Current release date is December 17th 2019.


Friday, January 11, 2019

The Forum: Mark Twain


Back in July I was delighted to be part of an episode of The Forum on BBC World Service dedicated to Mark Twain. You can listen to it here

Friday, April 27, 2018

Now in paperback: Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: American Changed Through Music


Complete with a spiffy new cover, Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: America Changed Through Music is soon to be released in paperback! June 12th, apparently.

Available from Amazon UK here, Amazon US here.

Wednesday, February 07, 2018

Center for Mark Twain Studies: Quarry Farm Fellowship


With enormous thanks to the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, I'm thrilled to be one of the Quarry Farm Fellows this year. This means that for two weeks in the summer of 2018, along with my family, I'm going to be living and working at Quarry Farm, Mark Twain's summer retreat and the place where he wrote many of his most important books (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn chief among them). While there, I'll be spending my time on my next book, provisionally entitled: Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain. Here's my blurb for the Quarry Farm website:


 A full list of the 2018 Fellows is available here - a tremendous list of projects!

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Readex Report: Ralph Keeler


In my continuing effort to keep the memory of Ralph Keeler alive, I've just published a short account of his career and disappearance in the Readex Report (Vol 12, Issue 1): "The Lost Prince of American Bohemians: The Strange Life and Mysterious Death of Ralph Keeler, Literary Vagabond." You can check it out here.

Tuesday, January 17, 2017

America Changed Through Music - More Advance Praise

I'm thrilled to say that our collection Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: America Changed Through Music has garnered some more praise - this time from Rob Young, author, amongst many other things, of the magnificent Electric Eden. Here's what he had to say:
The Anthology of American Folk Music is a talismanic casket of musical treasures, containing the key to decoding the tangled patterns of Harry Smith’s interests in multiple art forms. This valuable essay collection offers invigorating and learned perspectives on the Anthology and its connections with folklore, magic, and hidden histories of America. It’s a celebration of Smith’s maverick verve and shamanic energy, reinstating him as a wonder-working polymath whose occult activities rippled out widely into 20th century culture.
- Rob Young, author of Electric Eden and Editor-at-Large of The Wire magazine

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: America Changed Through Music


I'm delighted to say that tomorrow is the release date for Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: America Changed Through Music (Routledge) - a collection of essays about this landmark collection of music that I've been working on with my colleague Ross Hair for a good little while. It started life as a conference in 2012 marking the 60th anniversary of the Anthology - much more information about that here.

For those who don't know, the Anthology of American Folk Music was a pioneering collection of songs released by Folkways records in 1952. It contained eighty-four commercial recordings of American vernacular and folk music originally issued between 1927 and 1932, and featured an eclectic and idiosyncratic mixture of blues and hillbilly songs, ballads old and new, dance music, gospel, and numerous other performances less easy to classify. Harry Smith, the curator of this collection, was himself an extraordinary polymath - a collector, musicologist, painter, film-maker, and much more - who overlaid his musical selections with mystical symbolism and esoteric knowledge. Taken together, the collection has been delighting and perplexing its listeners ever since.  

Despite its high-profile fans and endless influence, this is the first book devoted to the Anthology. We are thrilled that so many wonderful people agreed to contribute to the collection. Alongside scholarly discussions of the collection's methods, meanings and music, we also have essays by contemporary musicians Nathan Salsburg and Sharron Kraus, and an afterword by Rani Singh, Director of the Harry Smith Archives and one-time assistant to Smith himself. 

We've already garnered some nice praise, too:
The Anthology of American Folk Music is an extraordinary cultural entity, one that has assumed mythical status. And Ross Hair and Thomas Ruys Smith’s fascinating collection manages to preserve our wonder at the music and at the eccentricity of its curator, while bringing new insights and fresh arguments to its history. Just as the Anthology is full of strange delights, so too is this book.
- Professor John Street, author of Music and Politics.
You can find the book on the Routledge site here.

It's available on amazon UK here, and amazon US here. The kindle edition is affordable! It should be out in paperback soon. Enjoy!

Saturday, October 29, 2016

Missing Ralph Keeler: Comparative American Studies


Many moons ago I came across a couple of oblique references to Ralph Keeler while researching travel accounts of the Mississippi River in the wake of the Civil War. He quickly proved to be too intriguing to ignore. After a paper at BAAS 2012 and a lot of digging around, I managed to piece together an account of his career and, in particular, his very significant literary friendships with writers like Mark Twain, William Dean Howells, and Thomas Bailey Aldrich that has a lot to tell us about the literary world in the decade after the war. "Missing Ralph Keeler: Bohemians, Brahmins and Literary Friendships in the Gilded Age" has just been published in Comparative American Studies, 14:2 (2016), 1-23. It's available here, for those with access. And for a limited time, even those without a subscription should be able to read it here. I hope this lays his ghost to rest!

The Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South


A belated announcement that my chapter on highwayman Joseph Thompson Hare (remember him?) has been published in Fred Hobson and Barbara Ladd's Oxford Handbook of the Literature of the U.S. South. It's a wonderful volume and a thrill to be in such good company. More information available here.