Synopses & Reviews
and#147;Very probably the best of the many Mark Twain biographiesand#133;one that should be preeminent for quite a long time.and#8221;and#151;Frederick Crews, author of
Follies of the Wise: Dissenting Essaysand#147;This biography offers irresistibly concise and beautifully paced chapters that will take readers through this author's amazing life and workand#151;its humor, its pathos, and its tragedyand#151;in brisk and compelling fashion.and#8221;and#151;Ed Folsom, author of Walt Whitman's Native Representations
and#147;There has definitely never been a Twain biography so comprehensive in scope and so sagaciously opinionative.and#8221;and#151;Alan Gribben, author of Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction, and co-founder of Mark Twain Circle of America
Review
"An informative new biography."
Review
“Funny and informative. . . . This could be the biography of the season.” San Francisco Chronicle
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and#8220;Excellent. . . . The biographer proves an adept guide.and#8221;
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and#8220;Serves up a balanced literary biography of a crowded life.and#8221;
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and#8220;Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens works well for the general reader.and#8221;
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“Funny, fresh, and informative.” Publishers Weekly
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“Provocative and well-reasoned.” Toronto Globe and Mail
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and#8220;A fresh interpretive perspective. . . . Readers will value this portrait of a peripatetic genius traversing a wide swath of American culture.and#8221;
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"Bids fair, as they used to say, to be a standard life."
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and#8220;Funny and informative. . . . This could be the biography of the season.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Funny, fresh, and informative.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Provocative and well-reasoned.and#8221;
Synopsis
Mark Twain, who was often photographed with a cigar, once remarked that he came into the world looking for a light. In this new biography, published on the centennial of the writerand#8217;s death, Jerome Loving focuses on Mark Twain, humorist and quipster, and sheds new light on the wit, pathos, and tragedy of the author of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. In brisk and compelling fashion, Loving follows Twain from Hannibal to Hawaii to the Holy Land, showing how the southerner transformed himself into a westerner and finally a New Englander. This re-examination of Twainand#8217;s life is informed by newly discovered archival materials that provide the most complex view of the man and writer to date.
About the Author
Jerome Loving, Distinguished Professor of English at Texas AandM University, is the author of Walt Whitman: Song of Himself and The Last Titan: A Life of Theodore Dreiser, both from UC Press.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Chronology of the Life and Works of Mark Twain
Prologue
I. Humorist in the West
1. Life on the Salt River
2. Window to the West
3. Orion
4. Southwest Humorist
5. Tramp Printer
6. Cub Pilot
7. Death on the Mississippi
8. Fetching Grant
9. Lighting Out
10. A Millionaire for Ten Days
11. and#147;Mark Twainand#8221;
12. Governor of the Third House
13. The Jumping Frog
14. Vandal Abroad
15. Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slope
II. Writer in the East
16. Westerner in the East
17. Pilgrims on the Loose
18. Love in a Locket
19. The Innocent at Home
20. False Start in Buffalo
21. Back on the Lecture Circuit
22. Home in Hartford
23. Sequel to a Success
24. A Book about the English
25. Colonel Sellers
26. Mississippi Memories
27. The Riley Book
28. Banned in Boston
29. The Innocent Abroad Again
30. Down and Out in Paris and London
III. The Artist and the Businessman
31. Associations New and Old
32. Return to the River and the Lecture Circuit
33. Mark Twain and the Phunny Phellows
34. Webster and Paige
35. A Romance of the White Conscience
36. Publishing Grant
37. Brooding in King Arthur's Court
38. Progress and Poverty
39. Europe on Only Dollars a Day
40. A Dream Sold down the River
41. Family Matters
42. A Friend at Standard Oil
43. Broken Twigs and Found Canoes
44. Back Home and Overland
45. Lost in the British Empire
46. Mark Twain's Daughter
IV. The Mysterious Stranger
47. City of Dreams
48. Winter Fantasies
49. Weary Sojourners
50. Exile's Return
51. Homeless
52. A Death in Florence
Epilogue
Appendix A. Clemens Genealogy
Appendix B. Books Published by Charles L. Webster and Company
Notes
Index