Scholars traditionally distinguish Mark Twain from Louisa May Alcott based on gender differences, but Roberta Seelinger Trites argues that there are enough similarities between the two authorsā intellectual lives that their novels share interconnected social agendas. Trites does not imply that Twain and Alcott influenced each otherāindeed, they had little effect on each otherābut, paradoxically, they wrote on similar topics because they were so deeply affected by the Civil War, by cataclysmic emotional and ļ¬nancial losses in their families, by their cultural immersion in the tenets of Protestant philosophy, and by sexual tensions that may have stimulated their interest in writing for adolescents.
Trites demonstrates how the authors participated in a cultural dynamic that marked the changing nature of adolescence in America, provoking a literary sentiment that continues to inform young adult literature. Both intuited that the transitory nature of adolescence makes it ripe for expressions about human potential for change and reform. Twain, Alcott, and the Birth of the Adolescent Reform Novel explores the effects these authorsā extraordinary popularity had in solidifying what could be called the adolescent reform novel. The factors that led Twain and Alcott to write for youth, and the effects of their decisions about how and what to write for that audience, involve the literary and intellectual history of two peopleāand the nation in which they lived.
āTrites examines in depth, as no scholar has done before her, the intricate parallels between the lives, works, attitudes, and social contexts of Samuel Clemens and Louisa May Alcott. This is an important contribution by a ļ¬rst-rate scholar who makes her case with verve and energy.āāJ. D. Stahl, professor of English at Virginia Tech, author, Mark Twain, Culture, and Gender, co-editor, Crosscurrents of Childrenās Literature
āAlthough many other scholars have written about Twain and Alcott, what distinguishes Tritesās scholarship on these legendary American writers is her remarkable ability to synthesize existing research in such a way that she helps readers see connections that they might otherwise miss. Most of the historical accounts of American adolescent literature focus on titles and authors rather than ideas. By concentrating on two important authors, Trites is able to explore in an intellectual way the assumptions and motivations behind these authorsā writings for adolescents.āāMark I. West, former president of the Childrenās Literature Association, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and author,A Childrenās Literature Tour of Great Britain
āIn her persuasive analysis of the adolescent reform novelās emergence, Trites explores the spiritual idealism, market-driven materialism, and real-world politics that shaped Twainās and Alcottās careers. In the process, she provides much needed attention to the remarkable but overlooked similarities that bring together these authors who imagined in the adolescentās capacity for change the nationās future.āāGregory Eiselein, author, Literature and Humanitarian Reform in the Civil War Era, co-editor, The Norton Critical Edition of āLittle Womenā
Introduction
Abbreviations
1. The Fantasy of Self-Reliance: An Introductory Biography
2. The Metaphor of the Adolescent Reformer: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Little Women
3. Historical Interlude: Vita Religiosa and Romantic Evangelism
4. Education and Reform: Victorian Progressivism
5. Gender and Reform: New Women and True Womanhood
6. Historical Interlude: Authors, Authority, and Publication
7. Adolescent Reform Novels: The Legacy of Twain and Alcott
Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
