Copyright Hartford Courant
The idea of Ben Shattuck’s “The History of Sound” winning the 2025 Mark Twain American Voices in Literature Award from the Mark Twain House & Museum seems impossibly appropriate. The short story collection doesn’t just touch on 19th century cultural themes that Mark Twain himself would have appreciated, it deals in the sort of wordplay, prankishness, outdoorsiness, breakdowns of social classes and the conscious undermining of literary formats that Twain popularized over a century ago. The Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award has been around for a decade and is a prime example of how the museum combines a reverence for literary history with an eye for present-day talent that keeps that legacy alive. The award carries the honor of an association with the museum which houses many Twain artifacts and documents and the house where Twain wrote such classics as “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” It also carries a cash price of $25,000 funded by the novelist David Baldacci, a longtime supporter of the institution. “I am ecstatic to have won the award,” Shack said in a phone interview with the Courant last week. “It’s the same thrill as getting an ‘A’ on a paper in a class. When you write a book, you’re throwing it into a void. You never know what you’re going to get back.” The title story in “The History of Sound” stands neatly on its own as a 19th century tale of gay romance and early pop culture anthropology. The tale, which is referenced in other stories in the book, has been turned into a feature film with a screenplay by Shattuck. The film, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, was released in September following its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May. All the stories in the book can intersect in interesting ways, thematically or stylistically or by taking place in the same towns or acknowledging the same local legends. Most of the stories are set in Massachusetts, where Shattuck grew up and where he and his brother now own a general store that has existed since the 1790s. He and his wife, the comedian/actor/filmmaker Jenny Slate, just moved to Brooklyn New York year-round after splitting their time between Massachusetts and New York. Massachusetts was also the main location for Shattuck’s previous book, the creative non-fiction memoir/travelogue “Six Walks,” in which he literally follows in the footsteps of Henry David Thoreau, experiencing walks associated with the philosopher. For “The History of Sound,” Shattuck said he played around with the form of the short story. He had found story ideas through things he experienced through other media and found himself thinking, “Can a podcast be a short story? Can a memo be a short story? I love reading a bibliography — it’s one way that stories are smuggled into books.” A tale about the sighting of a bird thought to be extinct in a small coastal town is convincingly rendered as an NPR-style audio program, and that conceit is enhanced in “The History of Sound” audiobook version, which uses multiple different narrators and actors to capture all the changing voices and styles in the book. “I moved around with so much freedom,” Shattuck said. “If I were to place this book in the legacy of Mark Twain it would be for the level of experimentation, throwing caution to the wind. The collection holds up a mirror to discussions of fiction and why it can be so compelling.” Shattuck is especially proud of a story told through the form of an introduction to an imagined book. The introduction is all that is needed to hint at the emotional core of its author. The stories in” The History of Sound” read like fact-based fiction but with some twists. The book opens with an epigraph that’s made up. Some stories are based on true-life adventures found in history books, while others just pretend to be. Some feel particularly well-researched or lived-in due to Shattuck’s personal experiences. Boating is a frequent theme, for instance. “I was forced to go to sailing school as a kid,” he said. “The house I grew up in is 100 feet from the ocean. It’s been a while but even now I feel like I could sail a boat blindfolded.” Shattuck has been to the Mark Twain House before as a visitor maybe a decade ago. Elsewhere in the state he remembers attending an impressive literary festival near Salisbury and appreciates Connecticut the way he does Massachusetts: For the vast differences between different parts of the same state. “I’m a big fan of Western Connecticut,” he said. “It’s so beautiful.” Shattuck has several projects in the works, including a non-fiction book about “America’s first bank heist” and a “quasi-experimental novel” that begins in 18th century Germany. He is also in great demand as a screenwriter, including adaptations of “The Wind in the Willows” and “Moby Dick.” “I’ve always found writing about the 19th century the easiest thing to write about,” he said. The Mark Twain American Voice in Literature Award isn’t the first honor “The History of Sound” has received. The book, published by Penguin Random House in hard cover last year and now available in paperback, won the Story Prize Spotlight Award, was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association, was one of National Public Radio’s “Books We Love” and made Best Books lists in the Chicago Tribune and Kirkus Reviews. He is still getting used to the attention. “Somebody asked me what it’s like being a famous author, and I looked to see if there was a famous author standing behind me,” “Shattuck said. “It feels so phenomenal to win an award because writers often feel so much rejection.”
