Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography - Hardcover

Integrating material from his literary works, diaries, and letters with 150 photographs, this illustrated portrait of one of America's greatest writers follows Mark Twain from his Hannibal, Missouri, childhood, through his travels throughout the world, to his career as a journalist and author, accompanied by essays on Twain by contemporary scholars and authors. 100,000 first printing.

gway called Huckleberry Finn “the best book we’ve ever had. There was nothing before. There’s been nothing as good since.” Critical opinion of this book hasn’t dimmed since Hemingway uttered these words; as author Russell Banks says in these pages, Twain “makes possible an American literature which would otherwise not have been possible.” He was the most famous American of his day, and remains in ours the most universally revered American writer. Here the master storytellers Geoffrey Ward, Ken Burns, and Dayton Duncan give us the first fully illustrated biography of Mark Twain, American literature’s touchstone, its funniest and most inventive figure.

This book pulls together material from a variety of published and unpublished sources. It examines not merely his justly famous novels, stories, travelogues, and lectures, but also his diaries, letters, and 275 illustrations and photographs from throughout his life. The authors tak