INVENTING MARK TWAIN: The Lives of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Andrew Jay Hoffman (Review by WC)

 

Publisher:  William Morrow

Release Date:  1997

Pages:  608

About the Book: 

This provocative, definitive biography explores the revealing and resonant contradictions between the true character of Samuel Clemens and his self-created alter ego, Mark Twain.

Richly detailed and filled with new information from primary sources, Inventing Mark Twain traces an extraordinary life that led from Mississippi steamboats to the California goldfields to cultural immortality as America's national philosopher. 

WC's Review:
So who is the real Samuel Langhorne Clemens? Is it the young, adventuresome Sam who heads off to discover fame and fortune in New York at age sixteen, or the still young sophisticate S L Clemens piloting on the Mississippi after achieving a degree of fame with a story of a jumping frog, or the multi-faceted Mark Twain enthralling crowds with his humor and tales of traveling the countryside and Europe? This biography is truly for the Twain aficionado, laden with wheelings and dealings with publishers and get rich con artists, a troublesome family, and Twain's obsession with the promotion of his books, including Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, the Gilded Age, The Prince and the Pauper, and Tom and Huck. My rating is 3 Stars