
Mark Twain
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Narrated by:
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Jason Culp
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By:
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Ron Chernow
About this listen
Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American literature, Mark Twain
Before he was Mark Twain, he was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in 1835, the man who would become America’s first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Twain went west to the Nevada Territory and accepted a job at a local newspaper, writing dispatches that attracted attention for their brashness and humor. It wasn’t long before the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance, writing under a pen name that he would immortalize.
In this richly nuanced portrait of Mark Twain, acclaimed biographer Ron Chernow brings his considerable powers to bear on a man who shamelessly sought fame and fortune, and crafted his persona with meticulous care. After establishing himself as a journalist, satirist, and lecturer, he eventually settled in Hartford with his wife and three daughters, where he went on to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He threw himself into the hurly-burly of American culture, and emerged as the nation’s most notable political pundit. At the same time, his madcap business ventures eventually bankrupted him; to economize, Twain and his family spent nine eventful years in exile in Europe. He suffered the death of his wife and two daughters, and the last stage of his life was marked by heartache, political crusades, and eccentric behavior that sometimes obscured darker forces at play.
Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures the man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars, and who was the most important white author of his generation to grapple so fully with the legacy of slavery. Today, more than one hundred years after his death, Twain’s writing continues to be read, debated, and quoted. In this brilliant work of scholarship, a moving tribute to the writer’s talent and humanity, Chernow reveals the magnificent and often maddening life of one of the most original characters in American history.
©2025 Ron Chernow (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Chernow’s voluminous biography presents Twain with all his complications and flaws—disastrous financial decisions, his evolving views on race—in this account both of the man and of a nation torn apart by war and stitched painfully back together, all of it brightened by Twain’s signature humor and wisdom.”—New York Times Book Review
“Before Chernow became the biographer of the American heroes hiding in our wallet—Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington, and most famously Alexander Hamilton—he was a chronicler of Morgans, Warburgs and Rockefellers . . . Enlightening and entertaining . . . Here, after covering Twain’s greatness, he has boldly written a book about the limitations of our body and mind, the traps of our reputation, the death of those we love and the embarrassing yearning for youth.”—Bloomberg
“Chernow has produced a literary biography of the first rank . . . Chernow writes expressively but clearly . . . The heartiest compliment I can pay to Chernow is that at no point did I wish, as I first suspected I might, that I was reading a book by Twain instead of one about him.”—The American Conservative
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Story
Ron Chernow examines the forces that made dynasties like the Morgans, the Warburgs, and the Rothschilds the financial arbiters of the early twentieth century and then rendered them virtually obsolete by the century's end. As he traces the shifting balance of power among investors, borrowers, and bankers, Chernow evokes both the grand theater of capital and the personal dramas of its most fascinating protagonists.
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Deep insights, wide comprehension, lively pace
- By Philo on 04-27-17
By: Ron Chernow
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Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
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A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
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Zbig
- The Life and Times of Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet
- By: Edward Luce
- Narrated by: Michael David Axtell
- Length: 23 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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An intimate and masterful biography of Zbigniew Brzezinski—President Carter’s national security advisor and one of America’s leading geopolitical thinkers—from one of the finest columnists and political writers at work today.
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The writing was impeccable
- By Nathan King on 05-22-25
By: Edward Luce
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Mark Twain
- By: Geoffrey C. Ward, Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns
- Narrated by: Bill Meisle
- Length: 8 hrs and 4 mins
- Abridged
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Meet the man behind the biggest persona either side of the Mississippi, in this audio companion to the Ken Burns film of the same name. Burns, Geoffrey Ward, and Dayton Duncan pull together a treasure trove of information on the man formerly known as Samuel Clemens, using published and unpublished sources. Also, browse all Mark Twain titles.
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Re read
- By G. Robert on 01-29-03
By: Geoffrey C. Ward, and others
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The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
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The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
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Alexander Hamilton
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 35 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power.
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An Outstanding & Riveting Book!
- By Kevin on 03-04-05
By: Ron Chernow
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Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
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He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
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Strangers in the Land
- Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
- By: Michael Luo
- Narrated by: Eric Yang
- Length: 17 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1889, while upholding Chinese exclusion, Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Field characterized them as “strangers in the land.” Only in 1965 did America’s gates swing open to people like Luo’s parents, immigrants from Taiwan. Today there are more than twenty-two million people of Asian descent in the United States and yet the “stranger” label, Luo writes, remains. Drawing on archives from across the country and written with a New Yorker writer’s style and sweep, Strangers in the Land is revelatory and unforgettable, an essential American story.
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Important to understand the past so we don’t repeat its mistakes
- By A G on 05-27-25
By: Michael Luo
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Grant
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Mark Bramhall
- Length: 23 hrs and 54 mins
- Abridged
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Pulitzer Prize winner Ron Chernow returns with a sweeping and dramatic portrait of one of our most compelling generals and presidents, Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant's life has typically been misunderstood. All too often he is caricatured as a chronic loser and an inept businessman, or as the triumphant but brutal Union general of the Civil War. But these stereotypes don't come close to capturing him, as Chernow shows in his masterful biography, the first to provide a complete understanding of the general and president whose fortunes rose and fell with dizzying speed and frequency.
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Compelling story of an American Icon
- By Amazon Customer on 02-04-18
By: Ron Chernow
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Original Sin
- President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-Up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again
- By: Jake Tapper, Alex Thompson
- Narrated by: Jake Tapper
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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From two of America’s most respected journalists, an unflinching and explosive reckoning with one of the most fateful decisions in American political history: Joe Biden’s run for reelection despite evidence of his serious decline—amid desperate efforts to hide the extent of that deterioration.
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The media finally gets honest..
- By Amazon Customer on 05-21-25
By: Jake Tapper, and others
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Class Clown
- The Memoirs of a Professional Wiseass: How I Went 77 Years Without Growing Up
- By: Dave Barry
- Narrated by: Dave Barry
- Length: 6 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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How does the son of a Presbyterian minister wind up winning a Pulitzer Prize for writing a wildly inaccurate newspaper column read by millions of people? In Class Clown, Dave Barry takes us on a hilarious ride, starting with a childhood largely spent throwing rocks for entertainment—there was no internet—and preparing for nuclear war by hiding under a classroom desk. After literally getting elected class clown in high school, he went to college, where, as an English major, he read snippets of great literature when he was not busy playing in a rock band (it was the sixties).
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More than good enough, though less than the very best memoirs
- By Tom Craven on 05-19-25
By: Dave Barry
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The Hidden History Of Words
- By: Andrew Kee
- Narrated by: Virtual Voice
- Length: 3 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Discover the fascinating stories behind the words you use every day. Have you ever wondered where words like "serendipity," "quarantine," or "avatar" come from? The Hidden Histories of Everyday Words takes you on a journey through the intriguing origins and surprising evolutions of the words that shape our language. From ancient myths and medieval traditions to modern technology and pop culture, this book uncovers the rich and often unexpected histories behind the language we use every day. Explore how a term for a humble peasant became synonymous with villainy, how a sacred Hindu concept ...
By: Andrew Kee
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Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Abridged
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In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
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Great Book, Great Reader
- By DanD on 07-10-11
By: Ron Chernow
I will say this book did drag a little in the middle. Twain’s life was understandably not as interesting or grand as Washington, Hamilton, Grant or Rockefeller (obviously few can compare). So the many mundane personal details seemed a little excessive at times. However, as his life careened to a bizarre and (self-inflected) tragic ending, I realized those earlier details became more important and relevant. All told I’m thankful for the length and detail because now that I’m finished, I’m stuck waiting for Chernow’s next book.
Another Chernow Masterpiece
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Another great book
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Well-researched and detailed
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Great author with an uninteresting life story.
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