Synopses & Reviews
In this magisterial full-scale biography of America's greatest storyteller and satirist, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Fred Kaplan refashions our image of Mark Twain and etches a vibrant portrait of a singular personality who created some of the most memorable literary characters of our culture. He coined the phrase — the Gilded Age, — spoke out vigorously against racism and imperialism, and in his multifaceted singularity as writer, businessman, polemicist, investor, inventor, and self-promoter became the most widely extolled and most dominant icon of American literature. As Kaplan writes, "There has been no one like him since."
Review
"A singularly excellent biography." The New York Sun
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"Refreshing. . . . Full of new material." St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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"A vividly detailed account. . . . Kaplan clearly shows the connection between Twain's writing and the people and events that surrounded his life." Library Journal
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"An even-handed narrative, fully aware of all the biographical and critical currents at work . . . but owing allegiance to no particular theoretical or psychological school of criticism." Richmond Times-Dispatch
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"Utimately, Kaplan's major contribution may be in what he has taken out of the Twain mythology. No longer will Twain be referred to as an inspired primitive." Houston Chronicle
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"The clearest, most comprehensive portrait yet. . . . It is almost unprecedented for a truly definitive biography of a writer of Mark Twain's stature to appear after so many years, but here it is." The Philadelphia Inquirer
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"A real contribution to what we know of the writer who made the American language safe for literature. . . . A great glory of information." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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"Lively. . . . Clemens feels whole because Kaplan takes the time to show him in so many different settings and situations." The Oregonian
About the Author
Fred Kaplan is Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of the critically acclaimed biographies Gore Vidal, Henry James, Dickens, and Thomas Carlyle, which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award and a Pulitzer Prize. He has held Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, and was a Fellow of the National Humanities Center. He lives in Boothbay, Maine.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. The Best Boy You Had, 1835-1847
2. The Fifty-Dollar Bill, 1847-1857
3. The River, 1857-1861
4. The Mark Twain Ledge, 1861-1684
5. A Fair Wind, 1864-1866
6. Straight Gate, 1866-1867
7. And Narrow Way, 1867
8. Home and Anchorage, 1868-1870
9. Comfort, 1870-1872
10. The Lion, 1872-1874
11. God's Fool, 1874-1879
12. Such Being My Nature, 1879-1882
13. Infinitely Shaded, 1882-1885
14. One of the Vanderbilt Gang, 1886-1891
15. Exile & Desolate, 1891-1895
16. Disappointment to the End, 1895-1896
17. Sundays in Hell, 1896-1900
18. Sweetheart of My Youth, 1900-1904
19. The Damned Human Race Luncheon Club, 1904-1910
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index