Hsuan Hsu’s introduction traces the history of literary critics’ response to these works, from the confusion of Twain’s contemporaries to the keen interest of current scholars. Extensive historical appendices provide contemporary materials on race discourse, legal contexts, and the composition and initial reception of the texts.
Hsuan L. Hsu is Professor of English at Concordia University. He is the editor of the Broadview Edition of Sui Sin Far/Edith Maud Eaton’s Mrs. Spring Fragrance (2011) and the author of Sitting in Darkness: Mark Twain's Asia and Comparative Racialization (NYU, 2015).