
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
The #1 New York Times Bestseller!
“Comprehensive, enthralling . . . Mark Twain flows like the Mississippi River, its prose propelled by Mark Twain’s own exuberance.”—The Boston Globe
“Chernow writes with such ease and clarity . . . For all its length and detail, [Mark Twain] is deeply absorbing throughout.”—The Washington Post
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Drawing on Twain’s bountiful archives, including thousands of letters and hundreds of unpublished manuscripts, Chernow masterfully captures the man whose career reflected the country’s westward expansion, industrialization, and foreign wars, and who was the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...




















Critic reviews
“Chernow writes with such ease and clarity . . . For all its length and detail, [Mark Twain] is deeply absorbing throughout.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
“A rollicking and comprehensive portrait of Samuel Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, the humorist and orator who turned a frontiersman’s wit into an American legacy.”—Erin Vanderhoof, Vanity Fair
“Chernow’s biography avoids the trap of idolizing Twain and gives an honest assessment of the author’s life, including his flaws and contradictions . . . Chernow’s willingness to give readers the unvarnished truth about Twain makes the biography stand out, as does his ability to simultaneously explore the historical and literary context of Twain’s writing . . . The recurring theme of Chernow’s biography is Twain’s love affair with the written word, and it ably demonstrates the impact that relationship had on a nation.”—Associated Press
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The reader quoted Twain using a voice that sounded like what I suspected he would, and I did enjoy that.
Pretty long
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A Masterpiece of Biographical Literature
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A Towering Figure
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Excellent
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Very interesting about his life and how he stood atop the literary world for a long time
How self centered Twain was a terrible businessman
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I am so glad I wasn't. I learned so much about Twain and his family, etc. The reader did a great job voicing all of the many people in Twain's life.
Ron Chernow does it again!
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Great book, complicated man.
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Another classic Chernow biography
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A Stellar Biography of A Stellar, well mostly admirable, life
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Mispronounced "Orion"
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