Amazon Resale
Buy new:
£35.00
FREE delivery 23 June - 2 July, 2025
Dispatches from: Amazon
Sold by: Amazon
£35.00
FREE Returns
FREE delivery 23 June - 2 July, 2025
Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or SMS.
Usually dispatched within 6 to 7 months
££35.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££35.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatches from
Amazon
Amazon
Dispatches from
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Amazon
Sold by
Amazon
Returns
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
Returnable until Jan 31, 2025
For the 2024 holiday season, this item if purchased between November 1 and December 25, 2024 can be returned until January 31, 2025 or within 30 days from receipt (whichever is later).
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
£17.29
FREE delivery 18 - 24 January. Details
Arrives after Christmas. Need a gift sooner? Send an Amazon Gift Card instantly by email or SMS.
Usually dispatched within 8 to 9 days
££35.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
££35.00
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Delivery cost, delivery date and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Dispatched from and sold by ErgodeBooks Ships From USA.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet or computer – no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Mark Twain, A Literary Life Hardcover – Illustrated, 22 Dec. 1999


{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"£35.00","priceAmount":35.00,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"35","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"hgaXtjPdBPxbrws2UeU0qR6SkrdJVat7LZoPEL1rxQQTrrb5Jo1AoPT2Dz7ahf2C51bjYlcNkNJ7nme30HBUqrckuoyCucMYd6kXwFpZ%2BIY88IMaEoDmUfELGNcvyZdx","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"£17.29","priceAmount":17.29,"currencySymbol":"£","integerValue":"17","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"29","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"hgaXtjPdBPxbrws2UeU0qR6SkrdJVat7n2rmc8sThZdNdpynMEzLb1ysZF%2BTvZjfnCjBSyiXfXaZN7YcgrVP9aA7RdtvZ00K1IXRJkYoA%2Bn1fh%2BchhWXW8BTC7kdcnitBXEy3t%2FGipZBD%2BydXDDRQsWMInll%2B5zBvgt7xseMpd2DK5QiGledTA%3D%3D","locale":"en-GB","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title
"Mark Twain endures. Readers sense his humanity, enjoy his humor, and appreciate his insights into human nature, even into such painful experiences as embarrassment and humiliation. No matter how remarkable the life of Samuel Clemens was, what matters most is the relationship of Mark Twain the writer and his writings. That is the subject of this book."—from the Preface
In
Mark Twain, A Literary Life, Everett Emerson revisits one of America's greatest and most popular writers to explore the relationship between the life of the writer and his writings. The assumption throughout is that to see Mark Twain's writings in focus, one must give proper attention to their biographical context.
Mark Twain's literary career is fascinating in its strangeness. How could this genius have had so little sense of what he should next do? As a young man, Samuel Clemens's first vocation, that of journeyman printer, took him far from home to the sights of New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, while his next vocation would give him the identity by which we most frequently know him. His choice of "Mark Twain" as a pen name cemented his bond with the river, as did such books as
Life on the Mississippi and Huckleberry Finn. Then following an unsuccessful try at silver mining, Clemens worked as a newspaperman, humorist, lecturer, but also cultivated an interest in playwriting, politics, and philosophizing.
In reporting the author's life, Emerson has endeavored to permit Mark Twain to tell his own story as much as possible, through the use of letters and autobiographical writings, some unpublished. These fascinating glimpses into the life of the writer will be of interest to all who have an abiding affection for Samuel Clemens and his extraordinary legacy.

Product description

Review

"This biography will win high praise from those who care most about Twain's literary achievement." ― Booklist

"Emerson's graphic record of the failed artist who created perhaps the greatest novel written in America,
Huckleberry Finn, will be a standard resource." ― Publishers Weekly

"With a spectacular, but not showy, familiarity with the entire range of Twain's works, Emerson shows a man who had trouble reconciling his Western persona with a proper Eastern lifestyle." ―
Library Journal

"An all at once engaging and purified life story." ―
ForeWord

"Mark Twain considered his writing the key feature of his life; this new biography takes him at his word. . . . [It] may inspire many to reread the Inimitable himself." ―
Kirkus Reviews

"This newest biography is based simply and sanely on the assumption, 'that one can understand virtually all of Mark Twain's works better if one can read them in their biographical context.' With a spectacular, but not showy, familiarity with the entire range of Twain's works, Emerson portrays a man who, in midlife, had trouble reconciling his rough-and-tumble, Western persona with a proper Eastern lifestyle. Emerson argues convincingly that Twain spent too much time trying both to write sequels to his most lucrative works and to establish himself as a dramatist and let himself be distracted by his social life and star-crossed business ventures. This welcome addition to Twainiana (the last wrap-up chapter is worth the price of admission) is recommended for all." ―
Library Journal

Book Description

In the last year of his life Mark Twain asserted, "To me, the most important feature of my life is its literary feature." "This new biography takes him at his word. . . . [It] may inspire many to reread the Inimitable himself."—Kirkus Reviews

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of Pennsylvania Press; Illustrated edition (22 Dec. 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0812235169
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0812235166
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.51 x 3.18 x 24.13 cm

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Everett Emerson
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read book recommendations and more.

Customer reviews

  • 5 star
    0%
  • 4 star
    0%
  • 3 star
    0%
  • 2 star
    0%
  • 1 star
    0%

Review this product

Share your thoughts with other customers

No customer reviews