In the late 19th century, Mark Twain was arguably the most famous author in the world, with classics like “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876) and “Life on the Mississippi” (1883) cementing his status as a cultural icon. But despite his accomplishments, Twain seethed at the idea that anyone might criticize him.
Mark Twain around the time he wooed and wed Olivia “Livy” Langdon in 1869. A sprawling new biography details his brilliant, yet often arrogance-filled, career. Courtesy of The Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut
For future editions of the book that rocketed him to fame, “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” Twain planned a “classic author’s revenge fantasy,” writes Ron Chernow in his new, sprawling biography, “Mark Twain” (Penguin Press), out now. Twain insisted on including a “prefatory remark” that identified two newspaper editors that he particularly loathed as inspiration for his young fictional protagonist.
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