When asked which essays summarize Mark Twain’s reading, scholar Alan Gribben listed three:

“Reading,” Mark Twain in Context, ed. John Bird. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2020. 14-23. (The best condensation of Alan Gribben’s 50 years of research into Twain’s reading.)

“Mark Twain Abroad: Travel Writing,” A First Class Fool: Mark Twain and Humor, eds. Susan Jaffe Tane, Julie Carlsen, Kevin MacDonnell, and Gabriel Mckee. New York: The Grolier Club, 2025. 96-111. (A summary of Alan Gribben’s findings regarding Twain’s habits of writing and reading about travel.)

“Mark Twain’s Lifelong Reading,” Mark Twain and Youth: Studies in His Life and Writings, ed. Kevin Mac Donnell and R. Kent Rasmussen (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016): 30-43. Alan Gribben here explores Mark Twain’s earliest reading experiences that had an impact on his later life and writings.