The fifteen papers included in this volume edited by Robert W. Hamblin and Melanie Speight were presented at the Faulkner and Twain Conference hosted by Southeast Missouri State University’s Center for Faulkner Studies in Cape Girardeau, October 19–21, 2006. The essays include the conference keynote address by Robert Brinkmeyer, a noted Southern Studies scholar from the University of South Carolina; essays by M. Thomas Inge, a widely published Southern literature scholar from Randolph-Macon College, and Leland Krauth, a well-known Twain scholar from the University of Colorado; and additional papers by scholars from Canada, France, Japan, and the United States. The various essays discuss Faulkner’s and Twain’s treatment of such topics as humor, the frontier, the Mississippi River, race relations, politics, detective fiction and death.