Mark Twain

Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full,fascinatingand complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literatureMark Twain Before he was Mark Twainhe was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835the man who would become AmericaΓÇÖs firstand most influentialliterary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the riverthe young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at the local newspaperwriting dispatches that attracted attention for their brashness and humor. It wasnΓÇÖt long until the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliancewriting under a pen name that he would immortalize. In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twainacclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortuneand crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a journalistsatiristand performerhe eventually settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughterswhere he went on to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He threw himself into the epicenter of American cultureand emerged as the nationΓÇÖs most notable political pundit. At the same timehis madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him; to economizeTwain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughtersand the last stage of his life was marked by heartachepolitical crusadesand eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play. Drawing on TwainΓÇÖs bountiful archivesincluding thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscriptsChernow masterfully captures the man whose career reflected the countryΓÇÖs westward expansionindustrializationand foreign warsand the only white author of his generation who grappled so fully with the legacy of slavery. Todaymore than one hundred years after his deathTwainΓÇÖs writing continues to be readdebatedand quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarshipa moving tribute to the writerΓÇÖs talent and humanityChernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.