In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a journalist, satirist, and lecturer, he eventually settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughters, where he went on to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He threw himself into the hurly-burly of American culture, and emerged as the nation’s most notable political pundit. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play.
Commission Earned
And 7 of those years in Europe were spent in the French national archives researching and writing his book about St. Joan of Arc. My favorite, and his, as it turns out.
ReplyDeleteBarry Obama's fav. book...........no thanks
ReplyDeleteI read Twain's Joan of Arc book about a year ago. This woman was his hero to a fanatical level. It was an excellent historical novel. But no reason to avoid it if Barry likes it or not. Fuck that guy... oh wait... Mike's got that covered.
ReplyDeleteAnything Chernow is gonna be excellent!
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