Includes bibliographical references (pages 221-232) and index.Lenz provides a historical overview of the American confidence man, and its role as a literary convention.The new country -- The early tradition of confidence games -- The emergence of the confidence-man convention -- Four variations of the confidence man -- The war, Mark Twain, and the flush-times confidence man -- From the new country to the twentieth century.Digitized at the University of Missouri--Columbia MU Libraries Digitization Lab in 2012. Digitized at 600 dpi with Zeutschel, OS 15000 scanner. Access copy, available in MOspace, is 400 dpi, grayscale
