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materials from 19th-century American
literary history now belongs to the
University of Nevada at Reno.
arry Berkove, who died May 19,
Where other readers saw glib mis-
2018, at age 88, wrote his dis-
anthropy in Bierce’s writings, Larry
sertation on Ambrose Bierce,
noticed that Bierce displayed a con-
an American humorist known for his
sistent, serious philosophy: Bierce
ironic word definitions and macabre
disdained the hypocrisy of people in
stories. Larry said that he never regret-
power and sympathized with the vic-
ted this choice of subject. While other
tims of injustice. In Heretical Fictions:
scholars sat grimly in the library, Larry
Religion in the Fiction of Mark Twain,
would periodically guffaw out loud at
written with Joseph Csicsla, Berkove
one of Bierce’s comic inventions. “If you emphasized Mark Twain’s bitter strug-
are going to spend your life
gle with his Calvinist child-
studying, you might as well
hood.
study something you can
Csicsla, now professor in
enjoy,” he said.
the English Department at
Larry Berkove had a big
Eastern Michigan University,
capacity for enjoyment. He
had been Berkove’s student;
loved to laugh.
then he asked how Berkove
At the start of his career
chose topics for study. “He
as a scholar, Berkove
told me that he usually just
received advice from his
watched which way every-
Larry Berkove
dissertation adviser: “Go
body else was going and then
see if the complete works
would turn and go off in the
of Bierce really includes
other direction,” Csicsla said.
everything.”
Not that Berkove automatically
So Berkove went to the crumbling
rejected popular ideas. “… Obscurity or
old newspapers where Bierce’s works
neglect never worried Larry when he
first appeared, and there he discovered
happened upon something he thought
treasures. Much of Bierce’s writing had
was skillfully written,” Csicsla said. “He
appeared once in an old newspaper
has consistently trusted in his ability to
and never again. In decades of work
distinguish good writing from bad, and
as a scholar, during which he accumu-
that fueled his pursuit of authors for
lated nearly 200 academic publications, whom many would never have risked
Larry often unearthed forgotten prima- the safety of the crowd.”
ry sources. “The newsprint crumbles
For example, in recent decades, a
in my hands,” he said. “I may be the last study called “theory,” abstracting the
person ever to read this paper … and if
grand function of literature, came to
I do not get it reprinted, it may be lost
dominate literary studies. Berkove
forever.”
worked in the opposite direction. He
In newspapers from the middle to
tried to understand precisely how skill-
late 1800s (the silver rush) in Virginia
ful authors used words and conveyed
City, Nev., Berkove found lost works by
ideas.
Bierce and Mark Twain and also fine
Berkove similarly had no use for
works by other once-popular authors.
trendy ideas in politics, such as fash-
Berkove especially admired the nearly
ionable anti-Zionism. When academic
forgotten Dan De Quille, Mark Twain’s
organizations brought up resolutions
roommate in Nevada. Berkove’s The
casually opposing Israel, Larry would
Sagebrush Anthology saved these writ-
fire off letters demanding they recon-
ers from oblivion.
sider.
Berkove liked to meet descendants
In the classroom, Berkove displayed
of these writers. For example, Sylvia
enthusiasm for good writing and
Stottard, the elderly granddaughter of
invited his students to share the fun. A
a Sagebrush writer, Sam Davis, turned
favorite saying of his captures this atti-
out to own a huge steamer trunk filled
tude: “They just don’t pay us enough as
with her grandfather’s writing and cor-
teachers to not enjoy what we do.”
respondence, including letters from
Patty O’Brien Faletti, a student who
Mark Twain.
became a teacher, wrote, “I modeled
Berkove’s own extensive archive of
my 34 years of teaching secondary

LOUIS FINKELMAN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

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