The Atlantic will offer e-books collecting classic contributions from authors like Mark Twain and John Muir

By Kevin McFarland | July 15, 2013 | 8:30pm

Aux Features Books

Before the long, slow death of the literary magazine, The Atlantic Monthly published many of the great American authors throughout its early history—and turned away several others. Now the magazine is taking advantage of a vast archive of contributors that includes Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and even some writers with fewer than three names like Mark Twain and John Muir. Via its in-house digital publishing imprint Atlantic Books, Atlantic Media will begin publishing e-book collections of famous past contributors, beginning with Twain, accompanied by an introduction from biographer Ben Tarnoff.

Twain wrote for The Atlantic Monthly from 1874-1880, during which time he published essays, short stories, and the serialized memoir that became Life On The Mississippi. Without his friendship with Atlantic editor William Dean Howells, Twain’s writing would never have reached such a wide audience at the time he published The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer, growing into one of the foundational literary voices of the country. The Mark Twain Collection is available now.