Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain composed the story in pen on notepaper between 1876 and 1883. He originally titled the manuscript Huckleberry Finn's Autobiography before settling on Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Paul Needham supervised the authentication of this handwritten document for Sotheby's books and manuscripts department in New York in 1991. The author revised the opening line three times, changing from You will not know about me to You do not know about me before finally writing You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. A later version became the first typewritten manuscript delivered to a printer. Demand for the book spread outside of the United States. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was eventually published on the 10th of December 1884, in Canada and the United Kingdom, and on the 18th of February 1885, in the United States. An engraver made a last-minute addition to the printing plate of E.W. Kemble's picture of old Silas Phelps which drew attention to Phelps' groin. Thirty thousand copies of the book had been printed before the obscenity was discovered. A new plate was made to correct the illustration and repair the existing copies. In 1885, the Buffalo Public Library's curator James Fraser Gluck approached Twain to donate the manuscript to the library. Later it was believed that half of the pages had been misplaced by the printer. In 1991, the missing first half turned up in a steamer trunk owned by descendants of Gluck's. The library successfully claimed possession and opened the Mark Twain Room to showcase the treasure in 1994.
In 1840s St. Petersburg Missouri Huckleberry Finn has received a considerable sum of money following The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. His father Pap an abusive alcoholic tries to appropriate Huck's fortune and imprisons him in a remote cabin. After a delirium tremens crisis in which Pap tries to kill Huck Huck fakes his own murder and settles on Jackson's Island. He reunites with Miss Watson's slave Jim who ran away after overhearing she was planning to sell him. They decide to go down the Mississippi River to Cairo in the free state of Illinois. Inside a floating house Jim finds a man who was shot to death but prevents Huck from seeing him. Huck sneaks into town disguised as a girl where he discovers from Judith Loftus that there is a reward for Jim's capture. They flee on their raft when they learn Jim is suspected of killing Huck. A flood strikes and they find a timber raft and a house floating downstream. Later Huck tricks a night watchman into a rescue attempt which fails when the steamboat sinks. Huck and Jim are separated in a fog. When they reunite Huck tricks Jim into thinking he dreamed the event. Jim is disappointed in Huck when Huck admits the truth. Two white men seeking runaways come upon the raft and Huck's lies convince them to leave. Jim and Huck realize they have passed Cairo so they decide to continue downriver. The raft is struck by a passing steamship again separating them.
Huck is conflicted about supporting a runaway slave but when two white men seeking runaways come upon the raft his lies convince them to leave. He meets the Grangerfords an aristocratic Kentuckian family headed by the sexagenarian Colonel Saul Grangerford. By the time Huck meets them the Grangerfords have been engaged in an age-old blood feud with another local family the Shepherdsons. After a Grangerford daughter elopes with a Shepherdson boy all the Grangerford men are killed in a Shepherdson ambush. Huck escapes and is reunited with Jim who has found and repaired the raft. Jim and Huck are joined by two confidence men claiming to be a King and a Duke. They rope Huck and Jim into aiding in several scams. In one town the King and the Duke cheat the townsfolk over two nights with a short overpriced stage performance. On the third the grifters collect the admission fee from previous audience members bent on revenge then flee. In the next town the swindlers impersonate the brothers of the recently deceased Peter Wilks and attempt to steal his estate. Huck tries to retrieve the money for Wilks's orphaned nieces. Two other men claiming to be Wilks' brothers arrive causing an uproar. Huck flees but is caught by the King and the Duke. He escapes but finds they sold Jim to the Phelpses. Huck vows to free Jim despite believing he will go to hell for it.
Upon issue of the American edition in 1885 several libraries banned it from their shelves. The Concord Public Library committee decided to exclude Mark Twain's latest book because it contained little humor and was very coarse type. One member regarded it as the veriest trash. Writer Louisa May Alcott criticized the book saying if Twain could not think of something better to tell our pure-minded lads and lasses he had best stop writing for them. In 1905 New York's Brooklyn Public Library also banned the book due to bad word choice and Huck having scratched within the novel which was considered obscene. When asked about the situation Twain replied I am greatly troubled by what you say. I wrote Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn for adults exclusively. Many subsequent critics Ernest Hemingway among them have deprecated the final chapters claiming the book devolves into little more than minstrel-show satire. According to Professor Stephen Railton of the University of Virginia Twain was unable to fully rise above the stereotypes of Black people that White readers of his era expected and enjoyed. He resorted to minstrel show-style comedy to provide humor at Jim's expense and ended up confirming rather than challenging late 19th-century racist stereotypes. In 2003 high school student Calista Phair and her grandmother Beatrice Clark in Renton Washington proposed banning the book from classroom learning because of the word nigger.
Huck and Tom appeared in a 1918 silent film by Famous Players, Lasky directed by William Desmond Taylor starring Jack Pickford as Tom and Robert Gordon as Huck. A 1939 version by MGM directed by Richard Thorpe starred Mickey Rooney as Huck. The 1975 ABC movie of the week featured Ron Howard as Huck Finn. Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn became a 1985 Broadway musical with lyrics and music by Roger Miller. A 2014 German film starred Leon Seidel and was directed by Hermine Huntgeburth. Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn released in 2014 starred Joel Courtney as Tom Sawyer and Jake T. Austin as Huckleberry Finn. A 1968 children's series produced by Hanna-Barbera combined live-action and animation under the title The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. James a novel narrated by Jim that reimagines the plot from his point of view won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2024. Big Jim and the White Boy is a graphic novel reimagining written and illustrated by David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson depicting Big Jim as the primary protagonist.
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Common questions
When was Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published in the United States?
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published on the 18th of February 1885, in the United States. The book had been released earlier in Canada and the United Kingdom on the 10th of December 1884.
Who supervised the authentication of Mark Twain's handwritten manuscript for Sotheby's?
Paul Needham supervised the authentication of this handwritten document for Sotheby's books and manuscripts department in New York in 1991. He verified the manuscript that Mark Twain composed between 1876 and 1883.
Why did some libraries ban Adventures of Huckleberry Finn after its release?
Several libraries banned Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because they considered it very coarse type containing bad word choice and obscenity. The Concord Public Library committee excluded the book stating it contained little humor while other critics found the language inappropriate for children.
What happened to the missing first half of Mark Twain's original manuscript?
The missing first half of the manuscript turned up in a steamer trunk owned by descendants of James Fraser Gluck in 1991. The Buffalo Public Library successfully claimed possession and opened the Mark Twain Room to showcase the treasure in 1994.
Which film adaptation starred Mickey Rooney as Huck Finn?
A 1939 version by MGM directed by Richard Thorpe starred Mickey Rooney as Huck. This production followed earlier silent films and preceded later adaptations such as the 1975 ABC movie featuring Ron Howard.