Mark Twain as Reformer: Two Cartoon Responses

Twain was a genuine nineteenth celebrity. Consequently, the positions he advocated attracted a good bit of attention--both pro and con. Political cartoonists clearly found Twain useful grist for their mills, as you can see from the examples on this page.

The copies and comments which appear below are "blown up" versions of those posted by Jim Zwick, "Mark Twain in Contemporary Political Cartoons." (In Jim Zwick, ed., Anti-Imperialism in the United States, 1898-1935 http://www.accinet.net/~fjzwick/ail98-35.html [January 1996].

"A Blood Brotherhood. A big company to grab everything . . . The 'Benevolent Assimilation Company, Limited.'" The barrell is labeled "For Him Who Sits in Darkness."

Illustration by Dan Beard from Ernest Crosby's anti-imperialist novel, Captain Jinks, Hero (New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1902). Dan Beard illustrated Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and was later a co-founder of the Boy Scouts. Crosby was president of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York.

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This page was constructed by Lucia Knoles, Department of English, Assumption College (1998).