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The Barnes & Noble Review
Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, and Ken Burns have written a touching and heartfelt look at the life and career of the man who is, arguably, the greatest writer in American history: Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. This is a glorious and beautiful illustrated book, drawing on Twain's works, diaries, and letters -- it's ideal as a companion to the four-hour PBS series on Twain.
What's most remarkable about Twain's life is the amount of personal loss he went through, and the degree to which he blamed himself for it. His brother Henry, a steamboat clerk, died in an explosion on the Mississippi in 1858; Twain felt responsible because he hadn't been there for his younger brother when he needed him. He and his beloved wife, Livy, lost a prematurely born son, Langdon, in 1872; again, Twain felt responsible, blaming himself for allowing the baby to catch cold. His daughter Susy died of an infection at the tender age of 23; Clemens blamed the death on the stress caused by the family's chronic bankruptcy. When Livy herself succumbed in 1904 (a loss that devastated Clemens, who adored the woman who so often inspired his writing), their daughter Clara suffered a nervous breakdown.
How did a man who has written some of the wittiest and most trenchant social commentary cope with so much intense misfortune? Perhaps it was his very "American-ness"; he clearly had that zest for adventure that sums up the spirit of the country. On the other hand, when one looks at the evolution of his writing over the years, there is a definite darkening in tone, a negativity that reflects Twain's personal misery. Either way, this illustrated look at the great humorist is a wonderful read. (Nicholas Sinisi)
Nicholas Sinisi is the Barnes&Noble.com Nonfiction Editor.
Kirkus Reviews
What comes after baseball, the Civil War, and jazz? Mark Twain, of course. Burns and Company are back with a four-hour PBS television series on America's favorite riverboat captain and author. The companion volume, assuredly an attempt to cash in further on all that research, is nonetheless an enticing edition in its own right. It offers a sumptuous collection of photographs, reproductions of original documents, and illustrations that capture the rough-and-tumble of Twain's life and career. Scholars in the audience might turn their noses up at the crisply informal bits of biography-some recreated so vividly that they seem ready for the stage-but even the most curmudgeonly will be enraptured by the scores of photos. General audiences will be beguiled by yet another heaping dose of Burns et al.'s sprawling yet intimate portraiture. The arc of Twain's life is captured with sweeping flourishes of fact supplemented by intimate details of his home and family life. The letter he wrote to his children as Santa Claus, his grief over his son's death from diphtheria, and his joy when the public library of Concord, Massachusetts, banned Huckleberry Finn illuminate the private life of 19th-century America's most public figure. Twain's trademark wanderlust kept the adventures coming during his life, and they make for fascinating reading today. Russell Banks, John Boyer, Jocelyn Chadwick, Hal Holbrook, and Ron Powers also contribute to the volume; the best of this bunch is Chadwick's meditation on Twain's use of the word "nigger" as she ponders the intersections of yesterday's racial politics, their present-day afterlife, and the ways they affect Twain's writing. Pick this cornucopia up for thepictures and you'll probably end up reading the whole thing. A coffee-table volume that someone might actually read-and enjoy. The wonders of Burns and Company never cease. (110 b&w and 40 color illustrations) First printing of 100,000
APR/MAY 02 - AudioFile
This is the audio that accompanies the book that accompanies Ken Burns’s documentary film. Twice as long as the public television original, it elaborates somewhat upon the biographical and critical material that the movie only touches upon. Nonetheless, it is no less superficial, compared to the several superb biographies, popular and scholarly, that have appeared since the author’s death. It’s Twain 101, presented in a jocular, informal narrative, with liberal quotes from its subject’s own writing. The whole relies not a whit on the film’s audio, except for a bit of music. The text is read--superbly--by Bill Meisle. Possessed of a very pleasant, mature voice and employing a conversational volume, he trots through the prose a bit too briskly, perhaps so that the material will fit on no more than six cassettes. Even so, he misses none of the meaning and nicely transitions from narration to quotation. Where he must slow down, he does. He displays, in fact, a fine ear for timing--not necessarily to bring a joke home, but to make the narrative as a whole musical and attractive. Y.R Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2003 Audie Award Finalist © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine
