Mark Twain & the Ultimate Writer's Diss

Twain's scathing analysis teaches us clean writing

Mark Twain published a fascinating satire of literary criticism in an 1895 issue of The North American Review. He did something amazing in the process. He showed us why we read more Mark Twain than James Fenimore Cooper. He didn’t hold back and made it personal: “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses.”

I’m going to focus on that this week. If you apply what Twain says, your writing will improve exponentially.

Those of you who were English majors like myself probably read this as an undergraduate. Even still, it’s good to go back to. And if you are an accountant or a lawyer, and were never an English major, this should be helpful.

Nowadays, a lot of literary criticism is resented by very smart unpublished people. Or very smart aleck unpublished people. Or not so smart published people. Or just people who whine a lot and happen to make a living doing so. Twain had by this time already published the books that have since lasted the test of time, like “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” That list goes on.