A good look into the author's life and works, although the sidebars distract at times they do add colour and shade to the main narrative. Most people know the name of Mark Twain or his alter-ego Samuel Clemens, but little of his personal life, I didn't, he's a flesh and blood human, but has a sense of humour that sheds light on human foibles. ( )

Mark Twain is one of my favorite authors. I'm not sure where on the list he goes since there's about five favorites, and my favorite author is dependant on which book by what author I last read. But, Sam' Clemons is right up there. If there's an afterlife, I'd like to be able to meet him for just a couple of minutes, shake his hand, and thank him for making dark days lighter.

This book about Twain is a companion to the Ken Burns' biography. It is filled with great stories about the man and lots of photos. If you can find a copy, buy it even if you've never read anything Twain wrote. Then, go out and at least buy his later works. They are full of his pain, to be sure, but Twain understood very well that laughter is how you stop the hurt.

Thank you for sharing both with the world, sir. ( )

This illustrated biography is the companion volume to the nearly four-hour documentary film directed by Ken Burns. Its 275 illustrations and photographs bring to mind and eye the life of both the man Samuel Langhorne Clemens and the legendary figure of Mark Twain with which it is forever fused. The varied takes and rich writing of the book's two authors, Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan, coupled with essays and interviews from such major contributors as Russell Banks, Jocelyn Chadwick, Ron Powers, John Boyer, and Hal Holbrook make this at least the equal of three or four good books in one!

If you take this fine book and the film it goes with, add to the two the masterful biography brought forth by Ron Powers -- and with all these in hand -- sign on to voyage into the two massive volumes of Twain's Autobiography already released (while you also await with many of us the arrival of its third), you will have made your way to one of the longest, unbroken, and most formative strands found in American life, language, and literature. What Twain lived his way into, especially in his difficult years at the end, cannot be said to have finished unfolding. He once said he was "an optimist . . . who didn't arrive." If his last words spoken to Clara after taking her hand were "Good-bye," followed by, "If we meet . . .", then they suggest someone still en route. Endings are not always also finishings. With lives -- especially great ones -- few ever are. Mark Twain's life remains a truly great, vital, ongoing, and irreplaceable American one of these. -G.R. ( )

Excellent short biography. Extensive photographs. Based on a documentary film the book shows the advantge of marrying the two media, print and film. ( )