The Singular Mark Twain: A Biography [Paperback]

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.”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“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 Phló4