A Twain Feast to Penguin
by Matthew Thornton -- Publishers Weekly, 10/10/2008 7:26:00 AM
Publishers still love Mark Twain. On the heels of Harper Studio’s recent announcement that their inaugural title will be Who Is Mark Twain, a collection of 22 previously unpublished pieces by the author, Penguin Press has just acquired Twain’s Feast: ‘The American’ at Table. Laura Stickney beat one other bidder for North American rights via Emma Sweeney. In the book, author Andrew Beahrs will search for America’s lost foods with Twain as his guide, weaving passages of Twain’s writing and historical research into a narrative of Twain’s travels; Sweeney compares the book to Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (also published by Penguin Press) or Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. This is the first nonfiction book for Beahrs, 34, who has published two previous novels, and tentative publication date is spring 2010, the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death in 1910 (Harper Studio’s pub date is tied to the 99th anniversary).
