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    Who Is Mark Twain?
    Who Is Mark Twain?
    Who Is Mark Twain?
    Ebook192 pages2 hours

    Who Is Mark Twain?

    By Mark Twain

    3.5/5

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    “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.

    "You had better shove this in the stove," Mark Twain said at the top of an 1865 letter to his brother, "for I don't want any absurd ‘literary remains' and ‘unpublished letters of Mark Twain' published after I am planted." He was joking, of course. But when Mark Twain died in 1910, he left behind the largest collection of personal papers created by any nineteenth-century American author. Who Is Mark Twain? presents twenty-six wickedly funny, disarmingly relevant pieces by the American master—a man who was well ahead of his time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 22, 2010
    ISBN9780062020857
    Author

    Mark Twain

    Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an American humorist and writer, who is best known for his enduring novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been called the Great American Novel. 

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    Reviews for Who Is Mark Twain?

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      While it’s certainly not necessary that one be a Twain expert to enjoy this collection, readers who have some familiarity with Twain and a fondness for his work and his history will get the most out of it. This one-sitting read would be a great gift for lovers of American literature and a nice addition to any serious reader’s library. Read my full review at The Book Lady's Blog.
    • 3/5
      I'm a big fan of Mark Twain's non-fiction, so I was intrigued by the concept of this book. However, while it contained a few clever pieces, overall, it didn't really seem to hold up to his larger, finished works. If you are a diehard fan who wants to read every scrap of Twain available, enjoy. But if you are a more casual admirer and want to read his best, go for Innocents Abroad or one of his other major works.
    • 3/5
      Not a masterpiece, but definitely interesting. This is a work of non-published short stories and essays that were left behind unpublished at Twain's death. Most of these works reflect Twain's familiar style, but several of them are unfinished. Some are autobiographical, others are purely literary. It is a bit spotty and sporadic, as posthumous collections usually are, since the author has no ability to control or edit his own work to ensure it's what he really meant/wanted. Overall, a quick, enjoyable read, but not on a par with most of what has been published earlier.
    • 5/5
      Glorious, absolutely glorious.
    • 5/5
      While I am a Twain aficionado, I'm by no means an expert on his works. I feel this disclaimer is necessary because great Twain scholars are probably even now queuing up their full-scale reviews of this book. While I can't help but admire his fiction, it is Twain's essays which I look to for inspiration and Who is Mark Twain? did not disappoint. What I found especially interesting is that, according to Robert Hirst, General Editor of the Mark Twain Project (what a dream job that must be!), Twain wanted these works published. It mattered not whether they were incomplete, inicindiary, or as, in the case of "Frank Fuller and My First New York Lecture," the roughest of drafts, Twain put them in his "box of Posthumous Stuff" to let the readers decide their worth. Brave man! Ahh, well, his opening essay, "Whenever I Am About to Publish a Book" (which I blogged about here) made it pretty clear he cared about readers and not critics. Yes, I think that would make one a braver (and perhaps better?) writer. How different is his perspective on posthumous works than that of Nabokov, who so feared death as the ultimate loss of control over his work (or so it seems) that he wished for his unfinished works to be destroyed. These essays are invaluable for the insight they give into Twain's writing process -- how he developed the essay's point of view by circling round things for a while, then settling like an eagle in its perch to declare what's wise or foolish. Perhaps because I've just undergone some painful moments in the dental chair, I particularly enjoyed his essay on "Happy Memories of the Dental Chair." Also, on this the day of another postage hike, "On Postage Rates on Authors' Manuscript" is a must-read. (Thank god the world is switching to cheaper digital submissions, is all I can say). But now, as I go back over the essays once again, I want to list what's special about each and every one of them, which tells me, this is a must-read for essay lovers, Twain lovers and writers one and all. Take one more trip with Twain. You won't be sorry.

    Book preview

    Who Is Mark Twain? - Mark Twain

    WHENEVER I AM ABOUT TO PUBLISH A BOOK

    Whenever I am about to publish a book, I feel an impatient desire to know what kind of a book it is. Of course I can find this out only by waiting until the critics shall have printed their reviews. I do know, beforehand, what the verdict of the general public will be, because I have a sure and simple method of ascertaining that. Which is this—if you care to know. I always read the manuscript to a private group of friends, composed as follows:

    Man and woman with no sense of humor.

    Man and woman with medium sense of humor.

    Man and woman with prodigious sense of humor.

    An intensely practical person.

    A sentimental person.

    Person who must have a moral in, and a purpose.

    Hypercritical person—natural flaw-picker and fault-finder.

    Enthusiast—person who enjoys anything and everything, almost.

    Person who watches the others, and applauds or condemns with the majority.

    Half a dozen bright young girls and boys, unclassified.

    Person who relishes slang and familiar flippancy.

    Person who detests them.

    Person of evenly-balanced judicial mind.

    Man who always goes to sleep.

    These people accurately represent the general public. Their verdict is the sure forecast of the verdict of the general public. There is not a person among them whose opinion is not valuable to me; but the man whom I most depend upon—the man whom I watch with the deepest solicitude—the man who does most toward deciding me as to whether I shall publish the book or burn it, is the man who always goes to sleep. If he drops off within fifteen minutes, I burn the book; if he keeps awake three-quarters of an hour, I publish—and I publish with the greatest confidence, too. For the intent of my works is to entertain; and by making this man comfortable on a sofa and timing him, I can tell within a shade or two what degree of success I am going to achieve. His verdict has burned several books for me—five, to be accurate.

    Yes, as I said before, I always know beforehand what the general public’s verdict will be; but I never know what the professional reviewer’s will be until I hear from him. I seem to be making a distinction here; I seem to be separating the professional reviewer from the human family; I seem to be intimating that he is not a part of the public, but a class by himself. But that is not my idea. He is a part of the public; he represents a part of the public, and legitimately represents it; but it is the smallest part of it, the thinnest layer—the top part, the select and critical few. The crust of the pie, so to speak. Or, to change the figure, he is Brillat-Savarin, he is Delmonico, at a banquet. The five hundred guests think they know it is a good banquet or a bad one, but they don’t absolutely know, until Delmonico puts in his expert-evidence. Then they know. That is, they know until Brillat-Savarin rises and knocks Delmonico’s verdict in the head. After that, they don’t know what they do know, as a general

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