About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherUniversity of Missouri Press

ISBN-100826221440

ISBN-139780826221445

eBay Product ID (ePID)240226067

Product Key Features

Number of Pages718 Pages

Publication NameLife of Mark Twain : the Early Years, 1835-1871

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2018

SubjectGeneral, Literary, American / General

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaLiterary Criticism, Biography & Autobiography

AuthorGary Scharnhorst

SeriesMark Twain and His Circle Ser.

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.8 in

Item Weight38.2 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2017-044383

Dewey Edition23

TitleLeadingThe

Reviews"While this is a gargantuan book that leaves Twain in his mid-thirties, it never feels overlong or too bogged down in detail. Scharnhorst has great material to work with, and he conveys it expertly." -- Foreword Review, "Clear and engaging, Scharnhorst's prose keeps you rolling happily through this consummate American adventure."-- Bruce Michelson , author of Printer's Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution, "Gary Scharnhorst's monumental biography sets a new standard for comprehensiveness. Scharnhorst's assertive style and unflinching interpretations set The Life of Mark Twain apart from all previous studies of this fascinating and contradictory figure. This will prove to be the standard biography for our generation."-- Alan Gribben , editor of the Mark Twain Journal and author of Mark Twain's Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading, "Scharnhorst's thorough and careful research results in a scholarly biography that will undoubtedly be considered definitive."-- Publishers Weekly, "A lively, richly detailed, and sharply perceptive biography."-- Kirkus (starred) "Scharnhorst's thorough and careful research results in a scholarly biography that will undoubtedly be considered definitive."-- Publishers Weekly "Gary Scharnhorst's monumental biography sets a new standard for comprehensiveness. Scharnhorst's assertive style and unflinching interpretations set The Life of Mark Twain apart from all previous studies of this fascinating and contradictory figure. This will prove to be the standard biography for our generation."-- Alan Gribben , editor of the Mark Twain Journal and author of Mark Twain's Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading, "Gary Scharnhorst's monumental biography sets a new standard for comprehensiveness. This will prove to be the standard biography for our generation."-- Alan Gribben , author of Mark Twain's Literary Resources: A Reconstruction of His Library and Reading, "In the near endless attempts to chart the life and times of Mark Twain, most biographers have mapped only parts of Twain's life, focusing solely upon a period, a place, or a set of relationships. In The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835-1871 , Gary Scharnhorst has widened his lens to take in the sweep of events, the currents of change and creativity in these early years that would make Twain into not just a cultural phenomenon but into the most American of artists. In its wit and clarity, Scharnhorst's biography will appeal to devoted readers of Mark Twain's life and fiction; while scholars will find in this volume a smart, insightful, unsentimental view of Twain--no idolizing of St. Mark, or armchair analysis of the Twain/Clemens divide. Gary Scharnhorst is a scholar whose command of nineteenth-century American culture and literature provides this volume with layer upon layer of context and insight."--Ann M. Ryan, co-editor of Cosmopolitan Twain, "Scharnhorst's thorough and careful research results in a scholarly biography that will undoubtedly be considered definitive."--Publishers Weekly, "With the facts about Sam Clemens's life scattered through countless volumes and archives, we have long needed a biography that brings them together, winnowing out the myths, and telling the true story with clarity and grace. Gary Scharnhorst has taken up this prodigious task, and as a veteran Mark Twain scholar still at the top of his game, he's certainly right for the challenge. Clear and engaging, Scharnhorst's prose keeps you rolling happily through this consummate American adventure."-- Bruce Michelson , author of Printer's Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution

Grade FromCollege Freshman

Series Volume Number1

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal818/.409

Table Of ContentContents List of Illustrations Preface Prologue Chapter 1. Ancestry Chapter 2. The Villages Chapter 3. Hannibal Chapter 4. Journeyman Printer Chapter 5. The River Chapter 6. The War Chapter 7. The Mines Chapter 8. Virginia City Chapter 9. From Virginia City to San Francisco Chapter 10. San Francisco Chapter 11. The Sandwich Islands Chapter 12. San Francisco Redux Chapter 13. New York Chapter 14. The Voyage Chapter 15. Washington, D.C. Chapter 16. The West Revisited Chapter 17. Hartford, Elmira, and Buffalo Chapter 18. Buffalo Exitus Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index

SynopsisThis 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 from beginning to end, from a single point of view, on an expansive canvas. With dozens of Mark Twain biographies available, what is left unsaid? On average, a hundred Clemens letters and a couple of Clemens interviews surface every year. Scharnhorst has located documents relevant to Clemens's life in Missouri, along the Mississippi River, and in the West, including some which have been presumed lost. Over three volumes, Scharnhorst elucidates the life of arguably the greatest American writer and reveals the alchemy of his gifted imagination.

LC Classification NumberPS1331