Critical Insights: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the first original collection of critical analyses of the titular Mark Twain novel, features an essay by Cindy Lovell, an instructor in the College of Education on the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee campus and self-described “Twainiac.”
Lovell’s affinity for Samuel Clemens – known to most by his pen name Mark Twain – began when her fourth-grade teacher Mr. Riese read an excerpt from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer aloud to the class.
“Mr. Riese never read an entire book to us,” Lovell said. “Instead, he would read a chapter from a different book each day – just to get us interested. When he read the whitewashing chapter from Tom Sawyer, I got ahold of the book right away.”
Lovell finished the book only to find herself standing on the edge of a cliff. “That was the first time I felt disappointed to finish a book because it ends kind of on this ‘What’s going to happen now?’ feeling,” Lovell said. “As a fourth-grade kid, you’re like, ‘What else?’”
So, Lovell read the book again. And again. And again. “I’ve basically been reading the book since fourth grade non-stop,” Lovell said. “I love the book. I teach the book.”
For Lovell, who once served as the executive director for the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum in Missouri as well as the Mark Twain House and Musuem in Connecticut, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has been a life-changing text and a “gateway” to Clemens’ oeuvre.
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of Clemens’ death and 175th anniversary of his
birth, Lovell organized the creation of a benefit album featuring artists such as
Jimmy Buffett, Sheryl Crow, and Brad Paisley. She is also credited with discovering
Clemens’ long-sought signature in the Mark Twain Cave, a three-mile passageway near
Clemens’ boyhood home. “I’d searched for his signature for decades,” said Lovell.
“Everybody knew he’d put his name in there. But there are a quarter of a
million other signatures in the cave. Then, it was as though the universe said, ‘Look
over there.’ And there it was.”
When Lovell’s contributor’s copy of Critical Insights: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer arrived on her front porch, she experienced yet another serendipitous moment.
Lovell, who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, recalled the many times she rode with her parents on Interstate 83. “We’d either go north to Harrisburg or south to York,” Lovell said. On the way to York, the family invariably passed by Maple Press, a book manufacturer and distribution center.
“We never had a reason to visit the place,” Lovell said. “But for a little kid in a family of readers, I remember looking out the window, thinking, ‘Wow,’ and picturing all these authors sitting around at desks writing books,” Lovell said. “I had no frame of reference.”
Then, last week, when Lovell’s contributor’s copy arrived, she was delighted to discover it had shipped from Maple Press. For Lovell, this is just “how the universe works.”
Lovell missed 10 days of school the year she spent in Riese’s class. She wonders now what she missed that might have changed her life the way The Adventures of Tom Sawyer has.
“When Mr. Reise read from Tom Sawyer, I didn’t know it was changing my life. All I knew was it was a new author I liked. And for years that’s all it was. Everything else was serendipitous.”
Critical Insights: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is available from Salem Press. Lovell’s chapter is titled, “Tom Sawyer’s Complicated Relationship with Mark Twain’s Hometown.” She considers it “an honor” to be included alongside her fellow Twain scholars.