It was one of the first books written in a regional vernacular, in this case a Missouri drawl. Author Samuel Clemens knew it well from his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri. Written under the pen name Mark Twain, the book about Huck Finn was both a satirical look at the Mississippi River culture of the 1850s and a bright light on the region’s racism.
According to the Free Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University, before Huck Finn, Twain had written an explicit exposé of racism, but his publisher refused to print it – saying the subject matter was too sensitive for readers.
So, Twain wrote about Huck facing the imprisonment and violence that characterized slavery. When Huck escaped, he found Jim, a slave, escaping as well, though it was illegal for Jim to run away from the same treatment Huck received. More than 21 years after the book hit shelves, the Library Journal found that Adventures of Huckleberry Finn had been banned somewhere in the U.S. every year since it was first published. It hasn’t hurt sales. Readers have bought more than 20 million copies of the book.
The cover of a firs-edition copy of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Image source: Raptis Rare Books
On this day in 1885, the landmark American novel "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was published in the U.S.
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