If Mark Twain lived today, he’d include girl protagonists as well as boys in his stories. That’s the idea of Milwaukee’s William Bott, who “co-authored” The Adventures of Jane Sawyer with the great American writer. Produced by Waukesha’s Orange Hat Publishing in a hardcover edition whose design suggests books from Twain’s era, Bott retained as much of the original text as possible while transforming some of the leading characters into girls.
Bott explains that he was inspired by teaching Tom Sawyer in middle school. He noticed “the boys were on the edge of their seats and the girls weren’t particularly engaged. It wasn’t because the story was ‘boyish’ but because it was written all about boys. Tom is just a kid, and as we read through it, I began to consider what it would look like if Tom and his friends became Jane and her friends. It became obvious that for modern readers, this story should be updated to include girls and to exclude language of racism.”
While researching for his project, Bott discovered that Twain had a similar gender switch in mind in a letter written to playwright William Howells. “Twain invites Howells to write a stage play. He says, ‘I have my eye upon two young girls who can play Tom and Huck,’” Bott says. “I could not believe this! Nearly 150 years ago, Mark Twain himself imagined and suggested that Tom and Huck be played by girls. Although social constraints of the time kept girls from having some of the adventures and experiences that boys had, reading Twain’s letter motivated me all the more to bring Jane Sawyer to life.”
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All these years later, Twain’s humorous insights into society’s foibles and pretenses remain spot-on. “Human beings haven’t changed, and Twain’s sensitivity to what we feel and think connect with readers, no matter the century. What was true about people then is true about us now, which is why this story is a classic,” Bott says.
Bott will discuss The Adventures of Jane Sawyer 5 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at Voyageur Book Shop, 2212 S. Kinnickinnic Ave.
