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 Clemenss 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...

This volume, organized from "addiction" to "Ghost stories," features articles on works, ideas, genres, aesthetics, events, places, societal values, and the history of publishing from 1870 to 1920.