"Given the prevalence and influence of groups devoted to animal welfare and animal rights in America today, it may come as a surprise to learn that the animal welfare movement did not start to gain momentum in the U.S. until the mid 19th century. Since then, activists have made the welfare and rights of animals a mainstream issue for both legislators and the general public. Animal advocacy may have never gotten to this point, however, without the help of one of America's greatest writers, Mark Twain.
Leading Mark Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin's latest research suggests that Twain was the most prominent American of his day to throw his weight behind the movement for animal welfare. In her new book entitled, 'Mark Twain's Book of Animals', Fishkin, a Stanford English professor, examines how Twain's fascination with, and advocacy for, animals reveals itself in many of his works. In the book's introduction and afterword, Fishkin suggests that Twain's works played a pivotal role in raising Americans' concerns about cruelty to animals and the exploitation of non-human animals by humans.
Mark Twain's Book of Animals is a broad-ranging collection of Twain's work relating to animals, ranging from short stories and essays to excerpts of novels, travelogues, and private letters. Notably, it also includes a famous polemic Twain wrote against vivisection (the use of a living animal in experiments or demonstrations) that was later used as a manifesto of sorts by anti-vivisectionists around the world. The book, published by the University of California Press and released this Fall, also features six works by Twain which are being published for the first time.
Philosopher Peter Singer, the author of Animal Liberation and The Life You Can Save, wrote that "For those unaware — as I was until I read this book — that Mark Twain was one of America's early animal advocates, Shelley Fisher Fishkin's collection of his writings on animals will come as a revelation. Many of these pieces are as fresh and lively as when they were first written."
According to Fishkin, her research for Mark Twain's Book of Animals was especially rewarding because she was investigating an aspect of Twain's writing that had not previously been explored. Fishkin said that in this collection of his work "We see Twain at his silliest and most philosophical, at his most sentimental and sardonic. We see him having fun, and we see him seething anger. We read texts that are playful, and we read texts that are dark. Texts that are appealing, and texts that are quite frankly, repulsive. We get glimpses of Twain as a child, a parent, an artist, a thinker and an activist. In short, we have writing that is complex and variegated as Twain himself."
Animals referenced in Twain's works range from the familiar (cats, dogs, horses, birds) to the exotic (platypuses, kookaburras and tsetse flies). Although birds are mentioned in a number of the examples, cats were apparently Twain's favorite; he admired them for their independence and the fact that they were the only animal to elude the sting of man's whip.
The edited collection also contains over 30 engravings of animals by the renowned, 20th century illustrator Barry Moser. "He is one of the greatest living engravers and illustrators," Fishkin said of Moser, who has also illustrated editions of Moby Dick, Alice in Wonderland and the Bible. "He did a wonderful job. His animals are stunning."
Fishkin was inspired to undertake the project after realizing how central animals were to Twain's works and that his views on animals revealed a great deal about how he viewed people. Fishkin was surprised by what she found during the course of her research. "I had not realized when I embarked on this project that Twain was the most prominent American of his era to throw his weight behind the animal welfare movement."
Mark Twain was greatly influenced by the ideas that Charles Darwin laid out in his groundbreaking publication, The Descent of Man (1871), a book that "startled the world," as Twain put it. She examined copious notes that Twain wrote in the margins of his copy of The Descent of Man (housed with the Mark Twain Papers at the Bancroft Library) and analyzed their significance.
In particular, Fishkin found that Twain was affected by Darwin's idea that man and animal were in reality, much more similar than people liked to believe. "The topic he was dealing with was emotional and intellectual continuities between humans and non-human animals. Darwin wrote that the lower animals were capable of experiencing the same emotions as people and that they were capable of rudimentary reasoning, as well."
Darwin's observations resonated with Twain's personal observations, as several texts in the books show. A number of Twain's works show that Twain believed that even if animals could not speak, they could still think and communicate, as well as feel.
Twain refused to place humans at the apex of creation, however. On the contrary, Twain classified humans as "the lowest animal." "Man is the animal that blushes," Twain once said. "He is the only that does it -- or has occasion to."" ..."
Full story via dbusinessnews.com
Another addition to my 'must read immediately' list.
