Illustrating Jim in 1978

COVER: CENTENARY EDITION, 1985

  In 1985 the Mark Twain Project at the University of California brought out their edition of Huck Finn, with all of E.W. Kemble's original illustrations. But at the same time the project collaborated with artist Barry Moser in the production of this Pennyroyal Press edition of the novel, which included 49 full-page black-and-white wood engravings of the text. Moser was a founder of the Pennyroyal Press, which by 1985 had produced dozens of classic literary works featuring his engravings; in 1989 it published Tom Sawyer. Moser's "Jim" is unquestionably the most humanly impressive of all the representations up to that date. Although Moser doesn't depict the scene where an angry Jim rebukes Huck in Chapter 15 for playing a trick on him, in the first and last of the engravings here his Jim seems mutely to confront us with his dignity as a man. He even wears the King Lear's outfit in which the Duke dresses him up with a kind of tragic sorrow. You can compare this image with other representations of Jim as a "sick Arab" here. Henry Nash Smith, head of the Mark Twain Project, does not discuss Moser's images in the Foreword he provided, which focuses mainly on the Papers' decision to include what is called the "raftsmen episode" in their edition of the novel. Moser provided captions for each illustration on the back of each page; they are included with the images below.


Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain. The Pennyroyal Press, California Centenary Edition, illustrated by Barry Moser. Foreword by Henry Nash Smith. West Hatfield: Pennyroyal Press, 1985. Special Collections, University of Virginia Library.



DETAIL: Centenary Edition
DETAIL: Centenary Edition
DETAIL: Centenary Edition
DETAIL: Centenary Edition
DETAIL: Centenary Edition



MT IN HIS TIMES Homepage Huck Finn Homepage MT IN HIS TIMES Bibliography