Research Catalog

Title

Tom and Huck don't live here anymore : childhood and murder in the heart of America / Ron Powers.

Author

Powers, Ron.

Publication

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

x, 316 p., [8] p. of plates : ill., map; 25 cm.

Summary

"Something had gone terribly wrong in Hannibal, Missouri. Within the space of six weeks, two killings - a manslaughter and then a murder - had taken place in the town that Mark Twain consecrated in his timeless classics about boyhood, the town that so proudly called itself "America's Home Town." Both were committed by adolescents." "Ron Powers felt compelled to revisit Hannibal. He had grown up there, and news of the crimes violated his faith in the town as an American sanctuary. The old "world headquarters of childhood" was not immune to the new national trend of violence by children. His hope was to find some explanation, some solace, some way of squaring these horrific tragedies with what he remembered about "his" Hannibal." "Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore illuminates the tortured paradox of childhood in present-day America: romanticized in public rhetoric but brutalized by countless acts of indifference, ignorance, and aggression. While no one can fully explain what makes children kill, Powers places the unthinkable squarely at the heart of America's story."--Jacket.

Subject

Children > United States > Social conditions

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Robie and Will -- Zach and Diane -- Tom and Huck -- At Hubbard and Hawkins -- The Widow -- Fathers and Sons -- Market Street -- A Spirit Goin' Round -- Stored Children -- Family Services -- Jimmy -- Town Boy -- Kyle Wilson -- Riding Shotgun -- "Who is Robie Wilson?" -- Postmortems -- Leaving Hannibal -- "Diane did it" -- An Innocent Abroad -- A Beautiful Day -- Verdict -- Jim -- Plans -- The Dream Palace.

ISBN

031226240X

LCCN

^^2001041612

OCLC

47136707

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library