Mark Twain Hardcover – May 13, 2025

The story of Mark Twain is remarkable. Growing up seventeen miles from his birth place made ours a joyous forced relationship. Chernow's amazing biography brought Twain to life again. The story is difficult and full of sorrow and joy. Mark Twain would love the author's fine writing and deep research, but most of all Twain would approve of the subject matter.

It takes a while to read the 1060 pages, but it's well worth it. Excellent writing about one of America's most interesting characters. Twain and Chernow are a great combination.

Another strong Chernow biography, though it definitely meanders. His Twain is certainly complicated—brilliant on the page, but a mess in just about every other area of life. Chernow leans into the contradictions: a literary legend who was also a neglectful father, a reckless businessman, and, especially in his later years, disturbingly fixated on young girls. Chernow stops short of calling him a pedophile—likely because there’s no concrete evidence that he acted on anything—but the pattern is deeply unsettling. The letters, the photo shoots, the obsession—it’s all there. Today, this behavior would absolutely set off alarms. Still, the book is deeply researched and offers a revealing, at times deeply uncomfortable, look at one of America’s most celebrated and conflicted figures. B+.

Ron Chernow's biography of Mark Twain verified once again why Twain has always been my favorite author and will continue to be. Mr. Chernow eloquently brought to life this special man possessed with amazing wit, passion, anger, compassion, unflagging opinions, waning opinions clearly illustrating his contradictory nature. I have always referred to him as "a character with character."I relived some very personal moments while reading this biography, having visited Mark Twain's Hartford residence several times with my high school students from Brooklyn, NY. I can clearly remember standing in front of Twain's imposing four poster bed complete with angels on each post. Our tour guide told us how his girls loved to unscrew the angels and place them in their baby carriages. She took this a step further by telling us how they liked to bathe the angels; obviously Twain was not amused. His top floor billiards room (men only) brought to mind an amusing story told by the tour guide. Drinking went hand in hand with playing billiards and often went on for hours. Many of his friends were quite drunk when they were ready to go home. Twain measured their ability to walk down the three flights of stairs by how much they "swayed" at the top of the stairs. Many never made it down a step and were quickly thrown into an adjoining bedroom to stay for the night!I was brought to tears when his famous quote from Pudd'head Wilson, "Let us endeavor so to live that when we die even the undertaker will be sorry" is made mention. My students from varying racial and ethnic backgrounds discussed his book with curiosity, intent on posing questions that had no clear cut answers!This biography unearthed things I never knew about Twain. Was I pleased to know these things? More things to ponder about that famous character with character!

Be prepared, this book is 1100 pages. It was my bedside reading for weeks, but my interest never waned. It is surely as comprehensive an account of Twain's life as there could ever be.The tragedies that Mark Twain suffered would be enough to turn anyone into the dark and brooding character he was. If your view of Twain is simply that of a genial humorist and source of clever quips, be prepared for a jolt.He had to have been a genius to have skyrocketed to fame as he did and to be recognized as a genius as widely as he was. I hadn't realized the extent to which his fame was based on platform performances rather than his writing, but he was practically The Beatles of his time, as much appreciated in Australia and France as in America.One almost humorous aspect of the book is Twain's lust for even more fabulous wealth than he and his wife Livy (who brought fabulous wealth to the marriage) already had. The author spends a great deal of time on the assorted frauds, scams and goofy, hopeless inventions to which Twain fell prey. Considering that they pretty well devastated Twain's life, "darkly humorous" is perhaps the better term.I found the book to be fundamentally sad. It seems to me that Twain was an idealist who desperately wanted people and life to be more fair and honorable than will ever be the case. His disappointment manifested itself in darkness, depression, rage, lost friendships, lawsuits and all the usual outlets. But his genius for storytelling allowed him to rise above it all and cement his place in the pantheon of American literature.A fascinating life, and a book that captures pretty much everything you could want to know (and perhaps more than that).