by Jerome Tiller, in Marc Johnson-Pencook , Mark Twain , Books , middle school literature , illustrated classic literature , illustrated classic stories , Eve and Adam

Fans of Adam might dislike ArtWrite Productions, the publisher of the Adapted Classics book Mark Twain’s the Diaries of Eve and Adam. The reason? The publisher decided to place Eve’s name before Adam’s in the title of the book. This upsets tradition, fans of Adam might say, and you do not upset tradition to appease women or to appeal to them for financial gain (women do buy more books than men, and men almost never buy books for their children). Well, fans of Adam, do you want to know what lake you can jump into? How about the first lake you come upon? 

When Mark Twain wrote about Eve and Adam, he wrote separate stories that featured either one or the other. When ArtWrite Productions decided to blend two of Mark Twain’s creation stories (“Extracts from Adam’s Diary”, “Eve’s Diary” ), we needed to choose a title. Now these two particular creation stories have either been collected or combined before. Each time either the publisher or the adapter or the playwright chose to place Adam before Eve in the title. So part of the reason we decided to place Eve first was to distinguish our book from all the other books and the plays too. But that was only one reason.

The primary reason we placed Eve before Adam in the title is because Eve is clearly the star, either when comparing the separate stories or when assessing how Eve and Adam play off one another in our blended version. Eve is curious, observant, imaginative and decisive. She feels, she cares, and she loves. Eve is community-oriented and tries to please and make things work out. And Eve always wins when winning is important. Readers cling to Eve, not to Adam. She is the lovable star.

As such, Eve deserves to have her name in the lead position. So fans of Adam, we happily put her name there and stand proud we are the first ones who did. And, oh yes, about that lake? Why not seal yourself in a barrel and go down a rapids and over a falls instead. Eve would rather you not, but we wouldn’t mind if you did.

 

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