Mark Twain Biography from Ken Burns PBS Documentary; Novels: Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Acclaimed American author, humorist and former newsman Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens, died 100 years ago today in his last home in Redding, Connecticut. We offer two books related to Mark Twain:

Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography
by Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan, with a foreword by Ken Burns
(Hardcover, 269 pages, 2001)

Mark Twain was the most famous American of his day, and remains the most revered American writer. The book — an essential companion to Ken Burns’ PBS documentary “Mark Twain” — examines not merely his famous novels, stories, travelogues, and lectures, but also his diaries, letters, and 275 illustrations from throughout his life.

This biography takes us from his boyhood in Hannibal, Missouri, to his time as a riverboat worker — when he adopted the sobriquet “Mark Twain” — to his varied careers as a newspaperman, printer and author. Follows him from the home he built in Hartford, Connecticut, to his travels across Europe, the Middle East and the U.S.

With essays by Russell Jocelyn Chadwick, Ron Powers and John Boyer, and an interview with frequent Twain portrayer Hal Holbrook, this book provides a rich portrayal of the first figure of American letters. Beautifully designed!

“This is more than a lavishly illustrated companion book to the Mark Twain PBS series. National Book Critics Circle Award winner Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, and Ken Burns have produced a cogent, colorful portrait of the man who forged our national identity in the sentences he spun,” writes Amazon.com.

“Excellent though the brisk narrative may be, the book’s greatest pleasures are the extensive Twain quotations; no one has topped his description of the Mississippi River, and he had a salty remark for every occasion (charged an outrageous fee for a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, he cracked, “Do you wonder now that Christ walked?”).

“Gracefully synthesizing current scholarship, this warmhearted biography provides the perfect introduction to Mark Twain.”

Purchase this book for $40:

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Great Novels of Mark Twain: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, & the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain (Hardcover, 438 pages, 2000)

Mark Twain (1835-1910) has achieved fame and a literary following throughout the world for his irreverent humor, realistic depiction of life on the Mississippi River and memorable characters and scenes from mid-19th century America. Beginning life as an apprentice printer, he became a journeyman printer and then a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi until the Civil War brought an end to travel on the river.

After serving briefly as a volunteer soldier and a short stint of work in a silver mine and as a reporter, he began to write and travel. His famous novel “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” comes from his own boyhood experiences in a town on the Mississippi. Its sequel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is considered to be his masterpiece. This is a facsimile of the 1899/1910 edition. Illustrations.

Purchase this book for $27:

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