Join us for a Deep Read salon on Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn featuring UC Santa Cruz Professor of Literature and Twain scholar, Susan Gillman. Prof. Gillman will discuss Twain’s novel in the context of 19th-century popular literature and political history and explore its broader cultural influence and reach as our American idol and target. She’ll help lay the groundwork for understanding this year’s Deep Read book, Percival Everett’s James, a rewriting of Huckleberry Finn that engages with both Twain’s novel and legacy. After delivering a brief lecture, Prof. Gillman will be in conversation with Vilashini Cooppan (UCSC Professor of Literature, Deep Read Faculty Co-Lead) and Laura Martin (UCSC Lecturer, Deep Read Faculty Co-Lead).

The Deep Read is an annual program of The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz. We invite curious minds to think deeply about books and the most pressing issues of our contemporary moment.