Book

Mark Twain / Ron Chernow.

Summary:

"Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, under Halley's Comet, the rambunctious Twain was an early teller of tall tales. He left his home in Missouri at an early age, piloted steamboats on the Mississippi, and arrived in the Nevada Territory during the silver-mining boom. Before long, he had accepted a job at the local newspaper, where he barged into vigorous discourse and debate, hoaxes and hijinks. While his talents as a writer and speaker flourished, his madcap business ventures eventually forced him into bankruptcy; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. Drawing on Twain's bountiful archives, including his fifty notebooks, thousands of letters, and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures a man whose career reflected the country's westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars."

Record details

ISBN: 9780525561729
ISBN: 0525561722
Physical Description: xxi, 1174 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
Publisher: New York : Penguin Press, 2025.
Copyright: ©2025

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 1045-1136) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Prelude: The pilot house -- Part one: Afloat. Loveless marriage -- A wild and mischievous boy -- Printer's devil -- "Darling existence" -- "A ragged and dirty bunch" -- "The most lovable scamp" -- "Heaven on the half shell" -- "Land of indolence and dreams" -- "Grave of a blood relation" -- A branch of hell -- "My honored 'sister'" ; Wedding present -- Part two: Floodtide. Church of the holy speculators -- Mississippi steamboat and a cuckoo clock -- Chartering a comet to Mars -- "Invertebrate without a country" -- Toast to the babies -- "Inspired bugger of a machine" -- "Hallelujah Jennings" -- Twins of genius -- "A sound heart & a deformed conscience" -- Pure mugwump -- Reparation due to every Black man -- "No pockets in the armor" -- "The deriding of shams" -- Death and delusion -- "One of the Vanderbilt gang" -- Part three: Rapids. "Paradise of the rheumatics" -- "A lady above reproach" -- "Boss machine of the world" -- "Too much of a human being" -- "Paris the damnable" -- "'Colossal' is a tame word for him" -- "Clown of the sea" -- "Circumnavigation of this great globe" -- "The only sad voyage" -- "A book written in blood & tears" -- "Letters to Satan" -- "Stirring times in Austria" -- "The European Edison" -- Dream self -- "A hundred capering clowns" -- "The bastard human race" -- Part four: Whirlpool. "The ancient mariner" -- The Anti-doughnut Party -- "The United States of lyncherdom" -- "Magnificent panorama of the Mississippi" -- "Spirit of a steam engine" -- Divine healing -- The dread cavalcade of death -- "The war prayer" -- "An artist in morals and ink" -- "The swindle of life" -- Pier 70 -- Angelfish -- A fan and a halo -- Wuthering Heights -- Part five: Shipwreck. Man in the white clothes -- "A real American college boy" ; "All the wonders that are occurring" -- A holiday from life's woes -- Innocence at home -- "Mark Twain's daughter" -- The death of Tammany -- "An insane idea" -- Grandpa Twain -- Letters from the Earth -- "An old bird of paradise" -- Halley's comet.