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Mark Twain
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Expected 13 May 25Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain
Ron Chernow, the highly lauded biographer of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Ulysses S. Grant, brings his considerable powers to bear on America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity, Mark Twain. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, under Halley’s Comet, the rambunctious Twain was an early teller of tall tales. He left his home in Missouri at an early age, piloted steamboats on the Mississippi, and arrived in the Nevada Territory during the silver-mining boom. Before long, he had accepted a job at the local newspaper, where he barged into vigorous discourse and debate, hoaxes and hijinks. After moving to San Francisco, he published stories that attracted national attention for their brashness and humor, writing under a pen name soon to be immortalized.
Chernow draws a richly nuanced portrait of the man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune and crafted his celebrity persona with meticulous care. Twain eventually settled with his wife and three daughters in Hartford, where he wrote some of his most well-known works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, earning him further acclaim. He threw himself into American politics, emerging as the nation’s most notable pundit. While his talents as a writer and speaker flourished, his madcap business ventures eventually forced him into bankruptcy; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play.
Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including his fifty notebooks, thousands of letters, and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures a man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars. No other white author of his generation grappled so fully with the legacy of slavery after the Civil War or showed such keen interest in African American culture. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.
Ron Chernow, the highly lauded biographer of Alexander Hamilton, George Washington, and Ulysses S. Grant, brings his considerable powers to bear on America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity, Mark Twain. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, under Halley’s Comet, the rambunctious Twain was an early teller of tall tales. He left his home in Missouri at an early age, piloted steamboats on the Mississippi, and arrived in the Nevada Territory during the silver-mining boom. Before long, he had accepted a job at the local newspaper, where he barged into vigorous discourse and debate, hoaxes and hijinks. After moving to San Francisco, he published stories that attracted national attention for their brashness and humor, writing under a pen name soon to be immortalized.
Chernow draws a richly nuanced portrait of the man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune and crafted his celebrity persona with meticulous care. Twain eventually settled with his wife and three daughters in Hartford, where he wrote some of his most well-known works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, earning him further acclaim. He threw himself into American politics, emerging as the nation’s most notable pundit. While his talents as a writer and speaker flourished, his madcap business ventures eventually forced him into bankruptcy; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play.
Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including his fifty notebooks, thousands of letters, and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures a man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars. No other white author of his generation grappled so fully with the legacy of slavery after the Civil War or showed such keen interest in African American culture. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.
1200 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication May 13, 2025
15 people are currently reading
21.6k people want to read
About the author
Ron Chernow
25 books5,880 followersRon Chernow was born in 1949 in Brooklyn, New York. After graduating with honors from Yale College and Cambridge University with degrees in English Literature, he began a prolific career as a freelance journalist. Between 1973 and 1982, Chernow published over sixty articles in national publications, including numerous cover stories. In the mid-80s Chernow went to work at the Twentieth Century Fund, a prestigious New York think tank, where he served as director of financial policy studies and received what he described as “a crash course in economics and financial history.”
Chernow’s journalistic talents combined with his experience studying financial policy culminated in the writing of his extraordinary first book, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (1990). Winner of the 1990 National Book Award for Nonfiction, The House of Morgan traces the amazing history of four generations of the J.P. Morgan empire. The New York Times Book Review wrote, “As a portrait of finance, politics and the world of avarice and ambition on Wall Street, the book has the movement and tension of an epic novel. It is, quite simply, a tour de force.” Chernow continued his exploration of famous financial dynasties with his second book, The Warburgs (1994), the story of a remarkable Jewish family. The book traces Hamburg’s most influential banking family of the 18th century from their successful beginnings to when Hitler’s Third Reich forced them to give up their business, and ultimately to their regained prosperity in America on Wall Street.
Described by Time as “one of the great American biographies,” Chernow’s Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998) brilliantly reveals the complexities of America’s first billionaire. Rockefeller was known as a Robber Baron, whose Standard Oil Company monopolized an entire industry before it was broken up by the famous Supreme Court anti-trust decision in 1911. At the same time, Rockefeller was one of the century’s greatest philanthropists donating enormous sums to universities and medical institutions. Chernow is the Secretary of PEN American Center, the country’s most prominent writers’ organization, and is currently at work on a biography of Alexander Hamilton. He lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York.
In addition to writing biographies, Chernow is a book reviewer, essayist, and radio commentator. His book reviews and op-ed articles appear frequently in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He comments regularly on business and finance for National Public Radio and for many shows on CNBC, CNN, and the Fox News Channel. In addition, he served as the principal expert on the A&E biography of J.P. Morgan and will be featured as the key Rockefeller expert on an upcoming CNBC documentary.
Chernow’s journalistic talents combined with his experience studying financial policy culminated in the writing of his extraordinary first book, The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (1990). Winner of the 1990 National Book Award for Nonfiction, The House of Morgan traces the amazing history of four generations of the J.P. Morgan empire. The New York Times Book Review wrote, “As a portrait of finance, politics and the world of avarice and ambition on Wall Street, the book has the movement and tension of an epic novel. It is, quite simply, a tour de force.” Chernow continued his exploration of famous financial dynasties with his second book, The Warburgs (1994), the story of a remarkable Jewish family. The book traces Hamburg’s most influential banking family of the 18th century from their successful beginnings to when Hitler’s Third Reich forced them to give up their business, and ultimately to their regained prosperity in America on Wall Street.
Described by Time as “one of the great American biographies,” Chernow’s Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. (1998) brilliantly reveals the complexities of America’s first billionaire. Rockefeller was known as a Robber Baron, whose Standard Oil Company monopolized an entire industry before it was broken up by the famous Supreme Court anti-trust decision in 1911. At the same time, Rockefeller was one of the century’s greatest philanthropists donating enormous sums to universities and medical institutions. Chernow is the Secretary of PEN American Center, the country’s most prominent writers’ organization, and is currently at work on a biography of Alexander Hamilton. He lives in Brooklyn Heights, New York.
In addition to writing biographies, Chernow is a book reviewer, essayist, and radio commentator. His book reviews and op-ed articles appear frequently in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He comments regularly on business and finance for National Public Radio and for many shows on CNBC, CNN, and the Fox News Channel. In addition, he served as the principal expert on the A&E biography of J.P. Morgan and will be featured as the key Rockefeller expert on an upcoming CNBC documentary.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 4, 2025
When I finish a biography, I have a singular question I like to ask. If I met the subject of the book, would I have a good idea of what to expect? The apex of authors who consistently meet the standard of my question is Ron Chernow. In Mark Twain, he continues to show he is the master of biography while tackling one of the greatest literary minds in American history. Before I continue with the review, I would be remiss not to mention that Chernow's books are very long. This one clocks in over 1,000 pages. It is excellent, but this is not a book you can do in one sitting. (At least, not a normal sitting. If you read this in one sitting you should see a doctor.)
In Chernow's books, I always came away with what I felt was a different intent for each subject. For Washington, I felt Chernow was trying to humanize someone who was held in nearly godlike reverence. For Hamilton, it was about shining a light on a life which was not as celebrated as it should have been. Grant was about rescuing the legacy of a man who was revered as a warrior but shamed as a president. People blamed him for failing to fix an already broken system while ignoring how he courageously stood up to hate when many others refused to. In Mark Twain, I think Chernow wanted to take the greatest American humorist of all time and tell his story beyond just his writing.
And beyond his writing is some serious drama. If you worship Twain as a hero, then you will be challenged by this biography. I don't mean that to suggest this is a smear campaign. Twain was as complicated as anyone else and a true biography like this is going to grapple with some unsettling content while lionizing other aspects. Chernow clearly reveres Twain, but he does not shy away from highlighting some truly weird stuff. I won't tell you what "angel-fish" are, but....ick.
Chernow also tackles some more contemporary perspectives of Twain's work. I appreciated Chernow's willingness to wade into the Huck Finn controversy. For the uninitiated, the book has significant use of racial epithet that many people want expunged completely. The flip side of the argument is that the word is in their because Twain wanted readers to be uncomfortable. It was his way of pushing back against racism even if it may not be the full-throated denunciation we would want today. Chernow examines this dichotomy which is just part of a much bigger look at how Twain could be a bit of a racist himself and then the exact opposite right after.
A significant part of the book covers Twain's self-destructive attempts at becoming a tycoon. For every timeless book he wrote, there was a hair-brained scheme which put Twain and his family on the edge of ruin. It is truly amazing seeing how one of America's biggest skeptics on religion could fall prey to so many frauds. This is of course not a one-to-one comparison in subject matter, but it does show how Twain's intelligence could be turned off like a light when he needed to employ the incisiveness that his books contained.
All this being said, the true revelation of the book is Twain's wife, Livy. Chernow clearly shows just how vital she was to the Mark Twain we know. In fact, Twain might never have been the icon we know today without the steady hand of his wife. She was his confidante, his censor (in all things), and the glue to his family. After her passing, it becomes indisputable that she helped Twain be his best in all aspects of life. She, like any human, was complicated herself, but there is no question she was his better half.
No doubt about it; this book is an undertaking. It is worth it, though.
(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by Netgalley and The Penguin Press.)
In Chernow's books, I always came away with what I felt was a different intent for each subject. For Washington, I felt Chernow was trying to humanize someone who was held in nearly godlike reverence. For Hamilton, it was about shining a light on a life which was not as celebrated as it should have been. Grant was about rescuing the legacy of a man who was revered as a warrior but shamed as a president. People blamed him for failing to fix an already broken system while ignoring how he courageously stood up to hate when many others refused to. In Mark Twain, I think Chernow wanted to take the greatest American humorist of all time and tell his story beyond just his writing.
And beyond his writing is some serious drama. If you worship Twain as a hero, then you will be challenged by this biography. I don't mean that to suggest this is a smear campaign. Twain was as complicated as anyone else and a true biography like this is going to grapple with some unsettling content while lionizing other aspects. Chernow clearly reveres Twain, but he does not shy away from highlighting some truly weird stuff. I won't tell you what "angel-fish" are, but....ick.
Chernow also tackles some more contemporary perspectives of Twain's work. I appreciated Chernow's willingness to wade into the Huck Finn controversy. For the uninitiated, the book has significant use of racial epithet that many people want expunged completely. The flip side of the argument is that the word is in their because Twain wanted readers to be uncomfortable. It was his way of pushing back against racism even if it may not be the full-throated denunciation we would want today. Chernow examines this dichotomy which is just part of a much bigger look at how Twain could be a bit of a racist himself and then the exact opposite right after.
A significant part of the book covers Twain's self-destructive attempts at becoming a tycoon. For every timeless book he wrote, there was a hair-brained scheme which put Twain and his family on the edge of ruin. It is truly amazing seeing how one of America's biggest skeptics on religion could fall prey to so many frauds. This is of course not a one-to-one comparison in subject matter, but it does show how Twain's intelligence could be turned off like a light when he needed to employ the incisiveness that his books contained.
All this being said, the true revelation of the book is Twain's wife, Livy. Chernow clearly shows just how vital she was to the Mark Twain we know. In fact, Twain might never have been the icon we know today without the steady hand of his wife. She was his confidante, his censor (in all things), and the glue to his family. After her passing, it becomes indisputable that she helped Twain be his best in all aspects of life. She, like any human, was complicated herself, but there is no question she was his better half.
No doubt about it; this book is an undertaking. It is worth it, though.
(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by Netgalley and The Penguin Press.)
December 12, 2024
Ron Chernow did it again.
March 15, 2025
This is a challenging book to evaluate. Chernow has undoubtedly done as thorough a job as I can imagine being done to Mark Twain's life. In the end, though, besides the usual Chernow page count, the story drags into tedium. The length and depth Chernow gave to someone like Hamilton works because Hamilton was an extremely dynamic person, whose energy and passions were dramatic and impactful. Twain - aside from writing a clearly influential body of work - filled his days mostly with poor business decisions, financial consequences of those decisions, railing against anyone who was unluckily involved in same, and various other vendettas borne at least in part from his own poor choices. Interspersed were long stretches of dragging his family from pillar to post, dealing with various and repeated health crises for all members of the family, and his gloomy ruminations on the tragedy of life (not that I'm disagreeing, Mark). His two main virtues that stand out from the pack are his obvious devotion to his wife (she sounds like a saint) and his amazing supply of clever one liners. If this book is missing anything, it might be more contemporary commentary to bolster the "why" of Twain's fame - because after 500+ pages of his failure to take responsibility for many of his mistakes, it was hard to remember why he was so beloved. 3 stars for the man, 5 stars for the book.
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the arc!
Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the arc!
March 22, 2025
My thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group The Penguin Press for an advance copy of this biography on a writer only America could produce, one of humor, of empathy, a man who called out the powerful and the hypocritical, and even more importantly changed with the times, and sometimes ahead of them.
When my nephew was born, I thought not only of the future that he would see, but of the past he had no ideas about. Most of my Grandparents have been long dead. My father passed before my brother found love, and that bothered me in a way. I gave my mother a journal to write things down so my nephew someday would know who is Nan was, and who his Grandfather had been. Even twenty years after his dead I still hear stories that are new to me, from cousins, neighbors, even my Mom. Stories that explain much about the man, what made him and what changed him from a Bronx Irish Catholic conservative, to a well liberal person with empathy. The past makes up who we are, and only an understanding of these things can a clearer portrait be made of the person. Growing up in the south, fighting on the Rebel side, changing his mind on race, religion, politics and even women. Writing stories point out those who blaspheme most while pretending piety. A man quick to hold a grudge, to chase a get quick scheme, and with odd ideas about young ladies, and a man whose books still tell us much about life. Mark Twain by acclaimed historian and biographer, Ron Chernow is a warts and all telling of one of America's best writers, one who entered the world and left the world with Haley's Comet, streaking across our imagination and literature.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born into a family whose ups and downs on the social and income scale left a deep impression on the man. Clemens' father was a man who tried much, failed at much, but still held out hope until he died at an early age, that his family would one day be wealthy and worthy of respect. Clemens' older brother had the brains for success, but not the drive or the ambition, leaving Clemens to be not just the bread winner, but the success. Clemens hit the road, taking jobs in printing presses, sweeping quartz, a time in the Missouri militia, one that Clemens fictionalized a bit about, and finally as a river boat captain. Legend says that there is where Clemens found his nom du plume, but as with many tales about Twain, the legend might sound better than the facts. Writing though was his future, even though Twain never saw a quick rich scheme he didn't like, nor a business deal he couldn't mess up. Twain became famous for his first book a sarcastic look at travelers to the Holy Land, and soon became on the foremost men of letters.
This book is not just a doorstop, its a bunker buster of a book. At 1200 pages there is not much of the life of Twain that is not unexamined. For all its heft, and for all the time it covers though it is a very readable and impressive book. There have been many biographies, including one by Twain, this covers not only the life, the writing, the relationships, but also the nasty things. The racism, the failed relationships and friendships, the numerous bad business deals. Also his latter-day thoughts on young woman, after the death of his wife. Chernow covers all this and the mad sad events in Twain's life. The early death of his father and siblings, the death of his children. The fact he never felt equal to the praise he received, though he loved the praise he was given. Chernow has outdone himself in many ways on this, the research, the writing and the way he captures so much about the man, a man who seemed so much different from the writer.
One of the biggest biographies I have read, and one of the best. One gets a feeling of the life lived, and the events that went into the writing, and the events that shaped the man. Another brilliant book by Chernow, one that might be hard to adapt for Broadway, but one I would love to see.
When my nephew was born, I thought not only of the future that he would see, but of the past he had no ideas about. Most of my Grandparents have been long dead. My father passed before my brother found love, and that bothered me in a way. I gave my mother a journal to write things down so my nephew someday would know who is Nan was, and who his Grandfather had been. Even twenty years after his dead I still hear stories that are new to me, from cousins, neighbors, even my Mom. Stories that explain much about the man, what made him and what changed him from a Bronx Irish Catholic conservative, to a well liberal person with empathy. The past makes up who we are, and only an understanding of these things can a clearer portrait be made of the person. Growing up in the south, fighting on the Rebel side, changing his mind on race, religion, politics and even women. Writing stories point out those who blaspheme most while pretending piety. A man quick to hold a grudge, to chase a get quick scheme, and with odd ideas about young ladies, and a man whose books still tell us much about life. Mark Twain by acclaimed historian and biographer, Ron Chernow is a warts and all telling of one of America's best writers, one who entered the world and left the world with Haley's Comet, streaking across our imagination and literature.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born into a family whose ups and downs on the social and income scale left a deep impression on the man. Clemens' father was a man who tried much, failed at much, but still held out hope until he died at an early age, that his family would one day be wealthy and worthy of respect. Clemens' older brother had the brains for success, but not the drive or the ambition, leaving Clemens to be not just the bread winner, but the success. Clemens hit the road, taking jobs in printing presses, sweeping quartz, a time in the Missouri militia, one that Clemens fictionalized a bit about, and finally as a river boat captain. Legend says that there is where Clemens found his nom du plume, but as with many tales about Twain, the legend might sound better than the facts. Writing though was his future, even though Twain never saw a quick rich scheme he didn't like, nor a business deal he couldn't mess up. Twain became famous for his first book a sarcastic look at travelers to the Holy Land, and soon became on the foremost men of letters.
This book is not just a doorstop, its a bunker buster of a book. At 1200 pages there is not much of the life of Twain that is not unexamined. For all its heft, and for all the time it covers though it is a very readable and impressive book. There have been many biographies, including one by Twain, this covers not only the life, the writing, the relationships, but also the nasty things. The racism, the failed relationships and friendships, the numerous bad business deals. Also his latter-day thoughts on young woman, after the death of his wife. Chernow covers all this and the mad sad events in Twain's life. The early death of his father and siblings, the death of his children. The fact he never felt equal to the praise he received, though he loved the praise he was given. Chernow has outdone himself in many ways on this, the research, the writing and the way he captures so much about the man, a man who seemed so much different from the writer.
One of the biggest biographies I have read, and one of the best. One gets a feeling of the life lived, and the events that went into the writing, and the events that shaped the man. Another brilliant book by Chernow, one that might be hard to adapt for Broadway, but one I would love to see.
February 20, 2025
I don't consider myself a Twain expert, but I have read lots about him since finding Albert Bigelow Paine's massive authorized biography in the seventies. I was very excited to get an early copy of a book that I expected to be momentous. Spoiler alert - I was not disappointed. Chernow manages to write in a way that does not call attention to itself, but shines a bright light on his subject. When writing about Twain's boyhood, he always manages to tie his subject's actions and personality to what would come later - particularly the boy's craving for an audience.
Chernow describes how Twain lets people into his life, praising them to the heavens, and then the partnership always ruptures and the friend becomes an enemy consigned to the lower reaches of hell. Given that record, his greatest blessing was finding Livy - the unlikely pairing of a wild outspoken cigar chomping Bohemian with a genteel and loving woman who would stand by him through many storms in the next three decades. The key 20 years of Twain's happy life were the times spent at their spectacular house in Hartford, raising three picture perfect, intelligent and talented daughters. Chernow warns us that things are going to get really bad. Even I didn't comprehend just how bad. Due to a steady stream of bad financial choices, the family had to move to a long term exile in Europe, Then the eldest daughter gets seriously ill and dies in the Hartford house. I hadn't realized what a complete mess her life had become, with poor health and a scandalous romance with a female classmate in college. Dark years followed as they spend more time in exile. Then another blow as the youngest daughter Jean gets epilepsy.Livy dies and Twain's life resembles King Lear. For years to come, this will be the seminal book on Twain. I'd have liked a bit more examples of that great wit, but the pathos works here beautifully.
Chernow describes how Twain lets people into his life, praising them to the heavens, and then the partnership always ruptures and the friend becomes an enemy consigned to the lower reaches of hell. Given that record, his greatest blessing was finding Livy - the unlikely pairing of a wild outspoken cigar chomping Bohemian with a genteel and loving woman who would stand by him through many storms in the next three decades. The key 20 years of Twain's happy life were the times spent at their spectacular house in Hartford, raising three picture perfect, intelligent and talented daughters. Chernow warns us that things are going to get really bad. Even I didn't comprehend just how bad. Due to a steady stream of bad financial choices, the family had to move to a long term exile in Europe, Then the eldest daughter gets seriously ill and dies in the Hartford house. I hadn't realized what a complete mess her life had become, with poor health and a scandalous romance with a female classmate in college. Dark years followed as they spend more time in exile. Then another blow as the youngest daughter Jean gets epilepsy.Livy dies and Twain's life resembles King Lear. For years to come, this will be the seminal book on Twain. I'd have liked a bit more examples of that great wit, but the pathos works here beautifully.
February 25, 2025
Wisdom
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews