Dr Thomas Ruys Smith is Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain (Louisiana State University Press, 2019); Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century (Continuum, 2011), and River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain (Louisiana State University Press, 2007). He is also the editor of a number of books: The Last Gift: The Christmas Stories of Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (Louisiana State University Press, 2023); Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth-Century America (Louisiana State University Press, 2022); Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music: America Changed Through Music (with Ross Hair) (Routledge, 2017); Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers, from Charlotte Temple to The Da Vinci Code (with Sarah Churchwell) (Continuum, 2012); and Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men: Nineteenth-Century Mississippi River Gambling Stories (LSUP, 2010). His personal website is: http://www.thomasruyssmith.com/. You can follow him on twitter: https://twitter.com/ThomasRuysSmith.Read more about this authorRead less about this author