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CMTS Launches "Mark Twain's Portfolio" Online Series

Elmira, NY (06/28/2019) — Earlier this month, MarkTwainStudies.com, the digital home of the Center for Mark Twain Studies, began running a new series written by Dr. Matt Seybold, assistant professor of american literature & Mark Twain Studies. The new series, "Mark Twain's Portfolio," features analysis of individual investments made by Samuel Clemens.

The first installment, "Existential Hedging & The United Fruit Company," was named a "Great Weekend Read" by Politico and "Best of the Week" by The Browser. It focused on a block of shares which, when Clemens died in 1910, were worth (after adjusting for inflation) around $740,000.

Upcoming installments will explore the financial and entrepreneurial side of Mark Twain, including investments in both familiar companies like AT&T and unfamiliar ones like Plasmon Milk Products. Dr. Seybold says he sees this series as part of his larger research project which aims to "debunk one of the most resilient myths about Twain, that he was financially incompetent and economically illiterate."

Since its launch in 2016, MarkTwainStudies.com has become a hub of Twain-related writing and resources created by established scholars, professional journalists, teachers, and Elmira College students. It has been cited by the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Guardian, Library of America, Travel & Leisure, and many other publications, both mainstream and academic.

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Matt Seybold, PhD
Matt
Seybold
  • Associate Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies
  • Division of Creative Arts & Humanities
  • Elmira

Elmira College

Jennifer L. Swain, 607-735-1894, jswain@elmira.edu

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