The origins and influence of Jim, Mark Twain’s beloved yet polarizing literary figure
Shelley Fisher Fishkin is the Joseph S. Atha Professor of the Humanities, professor of English, and professor (by courtesy) of African and African American Studies at Stanford University. She is the author or editor of many books, including Writing America: Literary Landmarks from Walden Pond to Wounded Knee and Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African American Voices, and is the editor of the multivolume Oxford Mark Twain. She lives in Stanford, CA.