Jason Horn offers the first thorough investigation of the relationship between Mark Twain and William James, emphasizing Twain's friendship with James beyond their shared intellectual interests. He uses James to understand Twain as thinker and to illuminate Twain's often vaguely defined religious and philosophical observations. The book provides a fresh estimate of Mark Twain's later years and challenges readers to discover a new way of seeing one of America's important and endearing writers.

The authors grew up in the land where Mark Twain spent his boyhood. They spent a life time gathering information and chronicling life as it was around the young Sam Clemens. The breadth of their research is astounding. Their work is scholarly in content, though highly readable in style. They speak to games played, employment in Hannibal, attitudes of the time, as well as events of Clemens'/Twain's own life. The book has been critically acclaimed by scholarly reviewers. The authors' readable style and downhome touch are the hallmark of this book. Twain buffs will want to add it to their collections. Teachers of literature who want their students to know more about what influences an author will appreciate it.

I first came across this book (actually an earlier edition) in 1967 while a student at Bowling Green University. I have never found its equivilent, even though I've probably looked at every Mark Twain photo book that's come out since. Highlights include a photo of Mr. Clemens laughing (he never showed his stained teeth if he could help it) and a series of photos, taken from the waist up, of a bare-chested Clemens at about age 55. All in all, it is the most entertaining and accessible telling of the life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens you can find. I would especially recommend this book for young people.

Bryan is my high school history teacher of long ago and I would say you can beleive most of the hysterically funny stories found in this book! Why, it's better than a comic book! Read it and I'll bet you can relate to many of the situations.

Although I have, as yet, been unable to read the book, I have had the opportunity to be a student of the author's. He is an amazing teacher, full of insight and a passion for the English language. As far as I am concerned, anything Bruce Michelson writes is well worth reading. Look for his new book next fall.

If you have read any of Mark Twains books and loved them, you should buy this, it is the best tape I have ever gotten! I love it and listen to it many times a day! Hope who ever reads this buys it, it is great!

Once again the editor has managed to gather the best literary minds together to develop a collection of literary essays on one of the classics of American literature; we are able to visually see the development of the novel as Twain (Clemens) would have wanted it understood. Bravo, Harold Bloom

Huckelburry, Duckelburry, Suckelburrry, Muckelburry, Cruckelburry, Truckleburry, Mooseburry, FINN!

This volume of effervescence gives off more sparks than a campfire from "Roughing It". It also provides terrific context for a group of essays by Shelly Fisher Fishkin "Lighting Out for the Territories". For real fun read David Carkeet's modern recreation of Twain "I Been Here Before", a book Twain would have somehow wished to be included in his canon. Don't be surprised if someday Carkeet's book is included as a companion volume to the Oxford Mark Twain.

Here is Twain in his own voice; humorous, cantankerous, opinionated, sometimes historically unreliable, but always engaging, and, unlike almost all of his contemporaries, fun to read.
He went everywhere and seems to have met everyone of consequence in his day, and he reports all with his reporter's eye (and imaginative gifts!). He was also a dedicated family man who, sadly, outlived most of his loved ones, and this work may be seen in part as a memorial to them. The sadness, suffused with joyful recollections, does not detract from the overall entertainment and enlightenment value of the work, which is highly recommended for anyone interested in Twain or the literary world of the nineteenth century.
(The numerical rating above is a default setting within Amazon"s format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)