1 Online-Ressource (xiv, 266 pages, [12] pages of plates)
Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index
Twain's brand and the modern mood -- Standing up: the self-made comedian -- Humor and empire -- Kid stuff: the vernacular vision and the visual -- Vernacular -- Comic brands: more than funny business
Samuel L. Clemens lost the 1882 lawsuit declaring his exclusive right to use "Mark Twain" as a commercial trademark, but he succeeded in the marketplace, where synergy among his comic journalism, live performances, authorship, and entrepreneurship made "Mark Twain" the premier national and international brand of American humor in his day. And so it remains in ours, because Mark Twain's humor not only expressed views of self and society well ahead of its time, but also anticipated ways in which humor and culture coalesce in today's postindustrial information economy--the global trade in media
