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More copies of this ISBN:This title in other formats:Mark Twain: A Lifeby Ron Powers
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Samuel Clemens, the man known as Mark Twain, invented the American voice and became one of our greatest celebrities. His life mirrored his country's, as he grew from a Mississippi River boyhood in the days of the frontier, to a Wild-West journalist during the Gold Rush, to become the king of the eastern establishment and a global celebrity as America became an international power. Along the way, Mark Twain keenly observed the characters and voices that filled the growing country, and left us our first authentically American literature. Ron Powers's magnificent biography offers the definitive life of the founding father of our culture. Review:"In 1867, after successfully marketing accounts of his Mideast travels to several newspapers, Mark Twain wrote to his mother, 'Am pretty well known now. Intend to be better known.' But he could hardly have anticipated the meteoric rise that would rapidly make him America's most prominent citizen. [Now] Twain will be subjected to that conclusive proof of American significance, the Ken Burns documentary....[H]appily, [this book] stands on its own merits as a fascinating account of Twain's extraordinary career. All Burns productions center on a good story, and this is a plain, very human tale: rags, riches, and the rest....As one might expect, the Burns team has done magnificent archival detective work and unearthed a treasure trove of rare Twain photographs. This should appeal to a vast potential readership eager to learn more about this manic, profound, daft, and provocative mad genius of American culture." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.) Review:"An impressive achievement...This book earns an honored place on the shelf of essential works on Mark Twain...Ron Powers has done justice to an incomparably complex, rich, fruitful, and tangled life, and along the way he has granted us a glimpse into the heart of America, as well as the heart of America's greatest writer." -- San Francisco Chronicle Review:"Like Twain's greatest works, this is a book that transcends its boundaries, giving us not merely one man, but America itself. It is a tremendous achievement and anybody even vaguely interested in the subject should read it." -- The London Telegraph Review:"A sweeping account of the personality and career of the man who, Powers writes, 'found a voice for his country'...Mr. Powers skillfully places his subject in historical context [and] quite rightly focuses on Twain's pitch-perfect ear and keen eye...A convincing portrait of Twain as a volatile, moody, guilt-ridden, desperately insecure man who was often a puzzle to himself." -- The New York Times Review:"Magisterial...almost certainly will become the go-to guide." -- The Denver Post Review:"Powers has given us the whole man. We feel we know him, as well as we can, as well as his most perceptive friend and fellow writer William Dean Howells knew him. Along the way Powers brings to vivid life Twain's America...No biography of Mark Twain could do him full justice. Powers' comes as close as you can imagine." -- Los Angeles Times Review:"A weighty and witty biography that comes as close as any to providing the essential biography...Powers makes Twain come alive as a three-dimensional, deeply flawed, immensely gifted and wonderfully intriguing writer." -- The Cleveland Plain Dealer About the AuthorGeoffrey C. Ward is the author of twelve books, including A First-Class Temperament, which won the 1989 National Book Critics Circle Award and the 1990 Francis Parkman Prize of the Society of American Historians. He has written or co-written many documentary films, including The Civil War, Baseball, and Jazz.
Dayton Duncan is the author of five books, including Out West: An American Journey and Lewis & Clark (with Ken Burns). He has been a consultant on many of Ken Burns's films, including Lewis & Clark, and was also the co-writer and consulting producer of the PBS series The West. Ken Burns, founder of Florentine Films, is a director, producer, and writer who has been making documentaries for more than twenty years. His landmark film The Civil War was the highest-rated series in the history of American public television, and his work has won numerous prizes, including the Emmy and Peabody Awards. Table of ContentsPrologue 1: "Something at Once Awful and Sublime" (1835-39) 2: "The White Town, Drowsing..." (1839) 3: Of Words and the Word (1840-42) 4: The Hannibal Decade (1843-53) 5: Apprentice (1848-51) 6: Rambler (1852-53) 7: "So Far from Home..." (1853-56) 8: The Language of Water (1856-58) 9: Ranger (1858-61) 10: Washoe (1861-62) 11: A Journalistic Counterculture (1862-63) 12: "Mark Twain — More of Him" (1863) 13: Code Duello (1863-64) 14: A Villainous Backwoods Sketch (1864-65) 15: "...And I Began to Talk" (1865-66) 16: On the Road (1866-67) 17: Back East (1867) 18: "move — move — Move!" (1867) 19: Pilgrims and Sinners (1867) 20: In the Thrall of Mother Bear (October 1867-New Year's Day 1868) 21: "A Work Humorously Inclined..." (February-July 1868) 22: The Girl in the Miniature (July 1868-October 1868) 23: American Vandal (October-December 1868) 24: "Quite Worthy of the Best" (1869) 25: Fairyland (1870) 26: "My Hated Nom de Plume..." (1871) 27: Sociable Jimmy (1871-72) 28: The Lion of London (1872-73) 29: Gilded (1873-74) 30: Quarry Farm and Nook Farm (1874-75) 31: The Man in the Moon (1875) 32: "It Befell Yt One Did Breake Wind..." (1876) 33: God's Fool (1877) 34: Abroad Again (1878-79) 35: "A Personal Hatred for Humbug" (1880) 36: "A Powerful Good Time" (1881-82) 37: "All Right, Then..." (1882-83) 38: The American Novel (1884-85) 39: Roll Over, Lord Byron (1886-87) 40: "I Have Fed So Full on Sorrows..." (1887-90) 41: "We Are Skimming Along Like Paupers..." (1891-June 1893) 42: Savior (1893-94) 43: Thunder-Stroke (1895-96) 44: Exile and Return (1896-1900) 45: Sitting in Darkness (1900-1905) Chapter the Last Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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