In this Book
- Twain in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates
- Book
- 2010
- Published by: University of Iowa Press
- Series: Writers in Their Own Time
Never one to suffer fools gladly, especially if they wore crinolines, Mark Twain lost as many friends as he made, and he targeted them all indiscriminately. The first major American writer born west of the Mississippi River, he enjoys a reputation unrivaled in American literary history, and from the beginning of his career he tried to control that reputation by fiercely protecting his public persona. Not a debunking account of Twain’s life but refreshingly immune from his relentless image making, Gary Scharnhorst’s Twain in His Own Time offers an anecdotal version of Twain’s life over which the master spin-doctor had virtually no control.
The ninety-four recollections gathered in Twain in His Own Time form an unsanitized, collaborative biography designed to provide a multitude of perspectives on the iconic author. Opening with an interview with his mother that has never been reprinted, it includes memoirs by his daughters and by men who knew him when he was roughing it in Nevada and California, an interview with the pilot who taught him to navigate the Mississippi River, reminiscences from his illustrators E. M. Kemble and Dan Beard and two of his so-called adolescent angelfish, contributions from politicians and from such literary figures as Dan De Quille and George Bernard Shaw, and one of the most damning assessments of his character—by the author Frank Harris—ever published.
Each entry is introduced by a brief explanation of its historical and cultural context; explanatory notes provide further information about people and places; and Scharnhorst’s introduction and chronology of Twain’s eventful life are comprehensive and detailed. Dozens of lively primary sources published incrementally over more than eighty years, most recorded after his death, illustrate the complexities of this flamboyant, outspoken personality in a way that no single biographer could.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- pp. xiii-xx
- Chronology
- pp. xxi-xxxiii
- "Mark Twain" (1878)
- p. 13
- From As I Remember Them (1913)
- pp. 16-19
- “In the Heroic Days” (1893)
- pp. 22-24
- “Salad Days of Mark Twain” (1893)
- pp. 25-37
- “Memories of Mark Twain” (1915)
- pp. 40-41
- “A Morning with Bret Harte” (1894)
- pp. 52-53
- “Mark Twain as a Lecturer” (1867)
- pp. 64-66
- “Mark Twain in California” (1898)
- pp. 67-68
- “About Mark Twain” (1877)
- pp. 71-72
- “Mark Twain in California” (1898)
- pp. 77-78
- “Mark Twain” (1910)
- p. 79
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 80-81
- “Mark Twain in London” (1872)
- pp. 82-86
- From Autobiography (1904)
- pp. 87-88
- “In Old Bohemia” (1908)
- pp. 89-91
- From Crowding Memories (1920)
- pp. 95-98
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 105-111
- From Celebrities at Home (1879)
- pp. 112-115
- From The Changing Years (1930)
- pp. 116-117
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 118-122
- From My Father Mark Twain (1931)
- pp. 131-132
- From I Remember (1934)
- pp. 134-136
- “Illustrating Huck Finn” (1930)
- pp. 137-140
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 141-142
- “Mark Twain on the Lecture Platform” (1900)
- pp. 143-144
- From Recollections of a Varied Life (1910)
- pp. 150-151
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 152-153
- From Opinions of a Cheerful Yankee (1926)
- pp. 154-156
- “Memories of Mark Twain” (1920)
- pp. 157-162
- From Hardly a Man Is Now Alive (1939)
- pp. 163-168
- From I Remember (1934)
- pp. 171-175
- From Hardly a Man Is Now Alive (1939)
- pp. 176-177
- “Mark Twain in Clubland” (1910)
- pp. 183-188
- From Eccentricities of Genius(1900)
- pp. 189-201
- “Mark Twain on the Platform” (1896)
- pp. 202-204
- From A Woman’s Part in a Revolution (1897)
- pp. 205-206
- From Autobiography (1935)
- pp. 207-209
- From Seventy Summers (1925)
- pp. 210-212
- “Mark Twain as a Newspaper Reporter” (1910)
- pp. 213-221
- “Some Reminiscences of Mark Twain” (1929)
- pp. 222-224
- From Roadside Meetings (1931)
- pp. 225-228
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 229-232
- From Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie (1920)
- pp. 238-240
- From Roses and Buckshot (1946)
- pp. 241-242
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 243-245
- From One Afternoon with Mark Twain (1939)
- pp. 246-250
- “Mark Twain: Personal Impressions” (1910)
- pp. 253-254
- From The Changing Years (1930)
- pp. 255-256
- “Mark Twain on Friends and Fighters” (1906)
- pp. 260-262
- From Hardly a Man Is Now Alive (1939)
- pp. 263-265
- “Innocents at Home” (1925)
- pp. 266-272
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 273-274
- From Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 275-276
- From Uncle Joe Cannon (1927)
- pp. 277-279
- “A Little Girl’s Mark Twain” (1935)
- pp. 287-292
- From Mark Twain and the Happy Island (1914)
- pp. 293-295
- “Mark Twain Lands an Angel Fish” (1967)
- pp. 296-298
- “Mark Twain at Stormfield” (1909)
- pp. 299-304
- From Hardly a Man Is Now Alive (1939)
- pp. 305-307
- “Mark Twain” (1929)
- pp. 308-317
- From My Mark Twain (1910)
- pp. 326-327
- Works Cited
- pp. 329-335
Additional Information
Copyright
2010