San Antonio College Library

"Mark Twain's autobiography is a classic of American letters, to be ranked with the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Adams ... It has the marks of greatness in it--style, scope, imagination, laughter, tragedy."--The Introduction by Charles Neider Mark Twain was a figure larger than life: massive in talent, eruptive in temperament, unpredictable in his actions. He crafted stories of heroism, adventure, tragedy, and comedy that reflected...

"In the final volume of his three-volume biography, Gary Scharnhorst chronicles the life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens from his family's extended trip to Europe in 1891 to his death in 1910. During this period, Clemens was one of the most famous people in the world. He also grapples with bankruptcy, returns to the lecture circuit, loses two daughters and his wife, and writes some of his darkest, most critical works in the last years of his life"--

This full-length biography conveys Ward's humor in many well-chosen examples and expands our knowledge of his influence upon American literature. As a comic lecturer, the first of the stand-up comedians, Ward captivated audiences all over the United States and Canada and helped to heal the wounds of the Civil War by his goodwill tours to the South.

Introduction by Arthur Miller. Afterword by Michael J. Kiskis.

"Axel Nissen gives a vivid account of Harte's tumultuous life, from his birth in Albany, N.Y., in 1836 until his death in a sleepy English village in 1902." "Based on extensive new sources, Harte's latest biography focuses on Harte's love-hate relationship with Mark Twain and examines the homo-erotic element in his life and work. He also offers a satisfying account of why Harte became so famous in his own time and why in ours he has suffered a decline."--Jacket....

"A fresh perspective on the early years of Samuel Clemens's career as a writer and newspaper reporter. Caron examines Clemens's developing comic voice in his journalism in Nevada and San Francisco, then in the travel letters from Hawaii and letters chronicling his trip from California to New York City"--Provided by publisher.

Traces the life of Mark Twain from his youth in Hannibal, Missouri, through his days as a riverboat pilot and journalist, to his literary success, describing his work, his troubled personal life, and his business failures.

"This book begins the first multi-volume biography of Samuel Clemens to appear in over a century. In the succeeding years, Clemens biographers have either tailored their narratives to fit the parameters of a single volume or focused on a particular period or aspect of Clemens's life, because the whole of that epic life cannot be compressed into a single volume. In The Life of Mark Twain, Gary Scharnhorst has chosen to write a complete biography plotted...

Tells of the early years of Sam Clemens and the stages by which he becomes Mark Twain.

Compares humorous stories Twain told publicly and privately with those wrongly attributed to him, and discusses his development as a speaker.