August — Current Literature published an anonymous article, “Mark Twain from a New Angle” [Tenney 46]. In his third supplement, Tenney adds: Summarizes and quotes Henderson’s ‘Mark Twain’. ..; also, quotes INDEPENDENCE BELGE...where ‘Jacques Lux refers to Prof. Archibald Henderson’s study as one of rare consciousness and singular force. ‘The Yankees,’ he says, ‘are as proud of possessing a Mark Twain as their fathers were ashamed of acknowledging Edgar Poe as their fellow-countryman. They profess for Mark Twain the same soft of vehement admiration that we have in France for the power of a Balzac” [Tenney, ALR Third Annual Supplement to the Reference Guide (Autumn, 1979) 193].
In the August issue of Smart Set, H.L. Mencken reviewed “Is Shakespeare Dead?” Tenney: “An inaccurate, unsuccessful book by ‘the most noble figure America has ever given to English literature. Having him, we may hold up our heads when Spaniards boast of Cervantes and Frenchmen of Molieŕe.’ He has given us HF, `But since Following the Equator, his decline has been almost pathetic” [47].