The text of this Norton Critical Edition is based, with typesetting errors corrected, on the first U. S. edition (1876), the most authoritative of the editions published in Twain's lifetime. "Backgrounds and Contexts" provides students with the standard source materials often cited by critics-Twain's stories of Good and Bad Boys, his Boy's Manuscript, his correspondence with William Dean Howells, and his 1870 letter to Will Bowen. This section also includes lesser-known but valuable contextual materials, among them Twain's journalistic description of school exercise and the discussion of Perry Davis' Pain Killer and other nineteenth-century nostrums. "Criticism" includes interpretations by William Dean Howells, Hamlin L. Hill, Judith Fetterley, Alan Gribben, Glenn Hendler, Carter Revard, and Susan R. Gannon. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included. About the Series: No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehensive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2, 000 universities worldwide. | The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, Paperback | Indigo Chapters