The Diaries of Eve and Adam
As he advanced in age, and after experiencing deeply personal losses and hardships, Mark Twain’s humor turned darker and his attitude and ideas more cynical. Near the end of his life he wrote a series of six stories commonly known as the ‘Adamic Diaries’. Four of the stories poke fun at Christianity and are dark in tone. These stories were not published until after Twain died in 1910. Two of the six stories in the series were published as illustrated books while Twain lived—Extracts from Adam’s Diary in 1904 and Eve’s Diary in 1906. These two stories are less pointed and much lighter in tone. We intertwined them in this volume by rearranging text and adding a little new material.
Contrary to Twain’s wishes, the stories were not published in one volume until after his death. Considering them separately, Eve’s Dairy is primarily a tender and loving story. It is thought to be Twain’s eulogy to his deceased wife, Olivia. Extracts from Adam’s Diary goes mainly for laughs. While Twain depicts Adam to be love-resistant at first, he nevertheless, and cleverly, sets the couple’s location within creation at Niagara Falls, the honeymoon capital of the world. The stories work well apart, but even better when read consecutively (or we think, when blended as in this volume). Taken together, the two stories put Eve’s and Adam’s sometimes sweet, sometimes humorous views of creation more effectively at odds.
Mark Twain’s tender take on creation and gender roles will amuse you while you decide what Mr. Twain gets right and what he gets wrong!And yet another wonder of creation gotten perfectly right? Marc Johnson-Pencook’s illustrations! His neo-classic, pen-and-ink illustration capture creation straight on, no frills, via the mind's eye of iconic American author Mark Twain. Marc's illustrations inspired author Jerome Tiller to bring two, separate Twain stories seamlessly together via light and respectful editing. Working together they have made this adaptation a great introduction for middle school readers to Mark Twain, one of America's greatest authors.