Mark Twain

Few American writers have matched Mark Twain's impact on his own day or his resounding influence on the generations that followed him. His novels painted a portrait of the American people and their country as they struggled with the issues of slavery, racism, industrialization, and the advent of a new century. This volume presents a portrait of Mark Twain as rich as the extraordinary life he led. Born near the Mississippi River, Samuel Clemens -- later known as Mark Twain -- was a riverboat pilot, a Civil War soldier, and a frontier journalist before he settled down to write the novels that would make him famous. His life is chronicled here in the words of biographers, historians, and journalists, and most significantly, in the words of Twain himself. Time Line. Index.