Who Is Mark Twain?

By Mark Twain and John Lithgow

Book Overview

" Twain] was, in the phrase of his friend William Dean Howells, 'the Lincoln of our literature'... At the heart of his work lies that greatest of all American qualities: irreverence."
-- Washington Post

"More than 100 years after Twain] wrote these stories, they remain not only remarkably funny but remarkably modern.... Ninety-nine years after his death, Twain still manages to get the last laugh."
-- Vanity Fair

Who Is Mark Twain? is a collection of twenty six wickedly funny, thought-provoking essays by Samuel Langhorne Clemens--aka Mark Twain--none of which have ever been published before, and all of which are completely contemporary, amazingly relevant, and gut-bustingly hilarious.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061735000
• ISBN13: 9780061735004
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.1" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

From the large box of Posthumous Stuff

"(I did) a grist of writing here this summer, but not for publication soon - if ever. I did write two satisfactory articles for early print, but I burnt one of them & have buried the other one in my large box of Posthumous Stuff. I've got stacks of Literary Remains piled up there." - Mark Twain, in a 1901 letter to a friend I recently read We'll Always Have Paris: Stories by Ray Bradbury, a collection of his previously unpublished stories that suggests that such works by famous authors were heretofore unpublished for a reason and are perhaps best left unattended in the face of any subsequent urge to wrest more revenue from the fan base. WHO IS MARK TWAIN? is evidence to the contrary. I imagine it's difficult for all inclusions in an anthology, whether by one author or several, to be universally pleasing to any one reader. At least, I've never come across such a book. Here, the author's twenty-four "literary remains" run the gamut from one star to, say, four and a half. To my mind, the former includes "Professor Mahaffy on Equality" and "I Rise to the Question of Privilege" - all of which verge on turgidity. Happily, the 1, 2 and 3-star contributions are more than balanced by writings that serve to remind the Samuel Clemens fan of the humor and perspicacity which so characterizes his more well-known works. In "Happy Memories of the Dental Chair", Twain sees the humor in his own precarious situation. Who among us could not relate? In "On Postage Rates on Authors' Manuscripts", the author takes aim at ridiculous government regulatory policies - always easy game because they're so widespread. "A Group of Servants" reveals that even Twain's domestic life provided fodder for his humorous pen. In "Interviewing the Interviewer", Mark takes a wickedly irreverent stab at his own profession, an endearing exercise for any professional. "The Grand Prix" illustrates Twain's powers of observation as a foreign correspondent. Finally, there are two chapters, "Jane Austen" and "The Snow-Shovelers", which appeal to my personal idiosyncrasies. I have a couple of female friends who've put Jane Austen up on a pedestal. Now mind you, I've been known to thoroughly enjoy several screen adaptations of that author's novels. However, I've never been tempted to read one. So, when Twain records the following, my contrary self is appreciative: "(Austen) makes me detest all her people, without reserve. Is that her intention? It is not believable. Then is it her purpose to make the reader detest her people up to the middle of the book and like them in the rest of the chapters? That could be. That would be high art. It would be worth while, too. Some day I will examine the other end of her books and see." Then, in "The Snow-Shovelers", Twain shows his marvelous talent for reproducing in text what he perceives as the heavy Black dialect of the time (1886), in this case as spoken by two snow-shovelers, Aleck and Hank. Were any contemporary, popular author to write such

More Mark Twain!

We were thrilled to death to purchase a "new" Mark Twain book - what a breath of fresh air! Real writing! Some of the material was not published, since Twain discovered that his story was based on incorrect facts and some pieces were not finished. However, for a real reader, it still a great book. I won't give anything away, but my daughter says that one story in the book is worth the price of the book, all by itself. We have purchased numerous copies for family members, all of whom have loved it.

Beautiful Book

A wonderful collection of essays presented in a beautiful package. Any Twain fan would be delighted to own this little volume of literary treasures.

A Treasure

I saw this on The New Yorker's website yesterday and downloaded the free audio of the book (John Lithgow reading). After listening I felt I had to have the book to browse and to put on my shelf. This is an American treasure.

Must-Read for Twain Fans

In 1900, Mark Twain wrote an editorial entitled "The Missionary in World Politics," originally intended for publication in the London "Times." Palpable anger smolders beneath the polished veneer of a journalistic conviction intended to persuade the reader over the breakfast table. Now you, complacent Westerner, Twain charges, now you imagine what it would feel like to watch foreigners traverse, uninvited, throughout your homeland, telling your children that your native religion is the sure ticket to eternal damnation, which has doubtlessly been the fate of all your heathen ancestors. And we wonder at the murderous rage this inspires, he continues, and then fail to see that the insult is only compounded when colonial punishment is meted out and a new, overbearing church is built in memorial to the fallen Christian martyr. "[The missionary] has loaded vast China onto the Concert of Christian Birds of Prey; and they were glad, smelling carrion; but they have lit and are astonished, finding the carcase alive. And it may remain alive - Europe cannot tell, yet," Twain concludes, ominously foretelling a dark future should European exploitation of China continue unabated. The editorial is signed with an anonymous X, but it was never published anyway - it turned out that the "massacre of the Ministers" had been a mere rumor. The topic of the piece nevertheless remains pertinent today, while the tone and the imagery further emphasize the anti-imperialist sentiments of an author all too often derided as a racist. "The Missionary in World Politics" also brings together two main themes - free speech and issues with the American publishing industry - that run throughout HarperStudio's new book "Who is Mark Twain?," a collection of twenty-four previously unpublished essays, sketches, thoughts, and short stories by the famed writer whose real name was Samuel Clemens. Although he never left explicit instructions for dealing with his vast collection of written remains - roughly half a million pages of everything from personal correspondence to bills to manuscripts to miscellaneous notebooks - Twain certainly implied that he would greatly prefer that most of it be published only after his death. "He seems to have been wholly willing to let posterity read them," says editor Robert H. Hirst, "unafraid of the light they might cast on his talent, or the way he wrote. That unusual willingness to let the world see how he worked, including how he failed or simply misfired, had only one precondition - he must not be alive at the time." As indicated by the title, the purpose of this newly-released compendium is to contribute to a greater understanding of an American literary giant: to clarify and illuminate him as both an artist and an individual. But, as an occupant of the grave, Twain is also protected from whatever public outcry and vilification he felt would accompany the publication of his more controversial works. Pure, unadulterated free speech, he felt, is a risky