{"product_id":"our-best-friend-in-america-cassio-de-oliveira-9780299360702","title":"Our Best Friend in America: The Soviet Afterlife of Mark Twain","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1960, the popular Soviet magazine \u003ci\u003eKrokodil \u003c\/i\u003edubbed Mark Twain the USSR's \"American Friend No. 1.\" This surprised neither the Kremlin nor the magazine's readers: Twain and especially his Mississippi novels, \u003ci\u003eThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn\u003c\/i\u003e, were favorites throughout the Soviet period, with the first translations dating to before the Bolshevik Revolution and film adaptations continuing into the 1980s. This book asks why and how such a decidedly American writer came to occupy pride of place in a nation so emphatically opposed to American culture. How exactly did Twain become the Soviet Union's \"best friend in America\"? How did that friendship change, and what did it mean, throughout the long and fickle decades of Soviet cultural policy and the Cold War?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat emerges from this complex history is not just the story of a single author's foreign fortunes but also the history of Soviet literature and culture as well as Soviet-American cultural interactions, which are revealed to have been more multifaceted and variable than might be assumed. Twain's reception in the USSR also speaks to the largely hidden history of world literature in translation, even during decades of fraught geopolitical confrontation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Cassio de Oliveira\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0299360709\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780299360702\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Wisconsin Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/01\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 288\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover","brand":"Cassio de Oliveira","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":49097266397439,"sku":"9780299360702","price":89.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/our-best-friend-in-america-cassio-de-oliveira-9780299360702","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}