Mark Twain
Kevin J. HayesSamuel Langhorne Clemens, born on 30 November 1835 in Monroe County, Missouri, was never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story. A natural-born storyteller, Mark Twain freely adapted the incidents of his life and the stories he heard as a youth to embellish his fiction, as well as his travel writing and autobiography. However, this presents a problem to the modern biographer: in accounts of Twain’s life, how does one tell what is true and what is just a colourful yarn?
In this new account of a gifted, charismatic character, Kevin J. Hayes reviews Twain’s life, from his early journalism to his masterpiece Huckleberry Finn, from the travelogue Life on the Mississippi to his final work, the sprawling, episodic Mark Twain’s Autobiography, and the public-speaking engagements that took him around the world. Synthesizing new information and sifting through the evidence, Mark Twain is a fresh, clear-sighted account of a crucial American writer.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born on 30 November 1835 in Monroe County, Missouri, was never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story. A natural-born storyteller, Mark Twain freely adapted the incidents of his life and the stories he heard as a youth to embellish his fiction, as well as his travel writing and autobiography. However, this presents a problem to the modern biographer: in accounts of Twain’s life, how does one tell what is true and what is just a colourful yarn?
In this new account of a gifted, charismatic character, Kevin J. Hayes reviews Twain’s life, from his early journalism to his masterpiece Huckleberry Finn, from the travelogue Life on the Mississippi to his final work, the sprawling, episodic Mark Twain’s Autobiography, and the public-speaking engagements that took him around the world. Synthesizing new information and sifting through the evidence, Mark Twain is a fresh, clear-sighted account of a crucial American writer.
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Hayes' brisk and sophisticated prose makes every sentence count in explaining the impactful events of Clemens's life and the significance of his writings . . . Here and there in his rapid-fire narrative Hayes pauses to savor a neglected nugget of Mark Twain's drollery . . . One wishes that this fine little volume had been available long before 2018.
'Mark Twain Journal
Introduction
1 The Old Southwest
2 Doings in Nevada
3 The View from Jackass Hill
4 The Innocents Abroad
5 The River
6 The Wheel and the Wire
7 Journey to the End of the Night
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
A recipient of the George Washington Prize, Kevin J. Hayes lives and writes in Toledo, Ohio. He has published widely on American literature, history and culture, including Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain in Reaktion’s Critical Lives series.
