26/09/2025
BOOK REVIEW
Here is the tenth review of a book in my collection related to old west journalism. (I am always grateful for readers’ suggestions of others I may wish to obtain.)
This time:
“Mark Twain" by Ron Chernow.
I found out about this book by chance but had been looking for an accurate biography of Samuel Clemens, A.K.A. Mark Twain, for some time. I mentioned it to my daughter and she gave me this for Father’s Day (I have great offspring!).
Mark Twain is thought to be extremely well-known but that is not the actual case. A lot of people have heard his name. A good number are familiar with some of his written works such as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” or “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. A few will know that he worked as a printer’s boy, a Mississippi river boat pilot, a miner and a newspaper reporter (the main reason for my particular interest). However, there is a lot about the man that is not widely known. This has not been helped by inaccurate and incomplete biographies and dramatizations of his life, not least his own works where he fictionalized his experiences, embellishing, changing facts and using a heavy degree of ‘writer’s license’.
This new biography must have taken its author, Ron Chernow, years to research before he began to write. He has gathered every possible piece of information: letters, diaries, newspaper stories, biographies and Twain’s own articles, novels and ‘autobiographies’, including unpublished manuscripts. He has sifted through the lot and put it in a logical order, giving us the life of Samuel Clemens in more accurate detail than any of his biographical predecessors, without any unnecessary additions or repetitions. All documents are noted and referenced and Chernow states where things may not be quite true or cannot be verified with total certainty.
The result is a book that, apart from the reference notations, presents almost like a novel. It is very well-written and easy to read. It must be put down occasionally – at over 1,000 pages, I doubt anyone could read it in one sitting – but it is enthralling and enticing. One wants to keep going to find out what Clemens/Twain did, said or thought next. The subject’s life was mixed, complicated, full of disappointments and triumphs. He had various influences on him and changed his mind about things during his life. Chernow covers all this and leaves us with an impression of the real man as someone who, whilst justly celebrated for his writing and oratory, was a complicated individual with a very interesting life.
Ron Chernow is a successful author. He has written seven books prior to “Mark Twain” and has won several prestigious awards including the ‘Gold Medal for Biography of the American Academy of Arts and Letters’. However, I did not need to read about these accolades to know that he is an excellent researcher and writer. His work speaks for itself.
The last 134 pages include a list of abbreviations, comprehensive notes, a large bibliography and a very full index.
If you wish to enjoy this book for yourselves, it is available widely online and in good bookshops.
Chernow, R. (2025), Mark Twain, Penguin Press.
ISBN: 978-0-241-77734-3
--------------------
Richard F. Baker
Frontier Citizen®
--------------------
Ron Chernow
The Mark Twain House & Museum
