Albert Paine Explained

Albert Bigelow Paine (July 10, 1861 – April 9, 1937) was an American author and biographer best known for his work with Mark Twain. Paine was a member of the Pulitzer Prize Committee and wrote in several genres, including fiction, humor, and verse.^[1]

Biography

Paine was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the son of Vermont farmer Samuel Estabrook Paine and Massachusetts shopkeeper Mercy Coval Kirby Paine, and was moved to Bentonsport, Iowa when he was one year old. From early childhood until early adulthood, Paine lived in the village of Xenia in southern Illinois; here he received his schooling. His home in Xenia is still standing. At the age of 20, he moved to St. Louis, where he trained as a photographer, and became a dealer in photographic supplies in Fort Scott, Kansas. Paine sold out in 1895 to become a full-time writer, moving to New York. He spent most of his life in Europe, including France, where he wrote two books about Joan of Arc. The works were so well received in France that he was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur by the French government.

Albert and Dora Paine had three daughters. Max McCoy in his "Biographer Obscura: The Secret Life of Albert Bigelow Paine" (in Mark Twain Journal Vol. 56, No. 1 [Spring 2018], pp. 249–267) claims Paine was earlier married to Minnie Schultz, and he either lied or committed bigamy by marrying Dora while still married to his first wife.^[2]

Selected bibliography

Books about Mark Twain^[3]

• • Mark Twain: A Biography, 4 volumes (1912)
• The Boy's Life of Mark Twain (1916)
  • Mark Twain's Letters, 2 volumes (editor, 1917)
• A Short Life of Mark Twain (1920)
• Mark Twain's Speeches (editor, 1923)

Other biographies

• Th. Nast

His Period And His Pictures (1904)^[4]

• Captain Bill McDonald, Texas Ranger: A Story of Frontier Reform (1909)
• Joan of Arc, Maid of France (1925)
• The Girl in White Armor: The Story of Joan of Arc (1927)
• Theodore N. Vail: A Biography (1929)
• Life and Lillian Gish (1932)
• George Fisher Baker, a biography: With illustrations (1938)

Children's books

• The Arkansaw Bear Series
  • The Arkansaw Bear (1898)
  • Elsie and the Arkansaw Bear (1909)
• The Hollow Tree Series (illustrated by J. M. Condé):
  • The Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book (1898)
  • The Hollow Tree Snowed-In Book (1901)
  • Hollow Tree Nights and Days (1915)
• Other children's books
  • Gobolinks, or Shadow-Pictures for Young and Old (1896)
  • Golden Cat (1934)

Novels

• The Mystery of Evelin Delorme, A Hypnotic Story (1894)
• The Bread Line (1900)
• The Great White Way (1901)

Travel books

• The Van Dwellers: A Strenuous Quest for a Home (1901)
• The Tent Dwellers (1908)
• The Ship Dwellers (1910)
• The Car That Went Abroad (1921)

Other books

• Rhymes by Two Friends with William Allen White (1893)
• A Little Garden Calendar (1905)
• Dwellers in Arcady: The Story of an Abandoned Farm illustrated by Thomas Fogarty (1919)
• Peanut, The Story of a Boy (1913)

External links

• • • • • Full text of Hollow Tree Nights and Days, Harper & Brothers.
• Gobolinks, or Shadow-Pictures for Young and Old （1896. From the collections at the Library of Congress

Notes and References

1. "Albert B. Paine, 76, Biographer, Dead." The New York Times April 10, 1937: 19.
2. McCoy, Max. “Biographer Obscura: The Secret Life of Albert Bigelow Paine.” Mark Twain Journal, vol. 56, no. 1, 2018, pp. 249–267. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/45173268. Accessed June 18, 2021.
3. "Mark Twain in His Times Bibliography". Accessed August 7, 2006
4. Book: Paine Albert Bigelow . Albert Bigelow Paine

   . Th. Nast: His Period And His Pictures . Albert Bigelow Paine . 1904 . The MacMillan Company . New York . 2009-07-10.