Of the works by Mark Twain I've only read the two most famous, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", and I have to admit that I knew next-to-nothing about this famous author other than that he grew up on the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri. I read this book on a whim and as the chapters progressed I found myself increasingly interested and by the end of the book, fascinated by this iconic literary figure.

Ron Powers makes Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain come to life starting with his boyhood in frontier Missouri, taking the reader step by step through many adventures of the author's life and citing passages from recently discovered Clemens notebooks and letters as well as excerpts from magazine columns and published works.

I feel like I can more fully appreciate Mark Twain's innovative style and writing techniques as well as why he occupies such an exalted status in American literature. I am really excited about the prospect of going back to the source and reading more of Mark Twain's writings.

Powers's profile is much more nuanced than the common image of Twain as a genial wit. He certainly was flawed; Powers doesn't leave anything out. Twain was alternately supportive and hugely cruel to his hapless brother, Orion, whose particular talent was finding ways to lose money. I wonder if this ever caused Twain a twinge later, when he himself had to be rescued from financial peril by the industrialist Henry Rogers.

It seems to me that Twain's books were driven more by commercial necessity than by artistic inspiration. He was a total 'quant' when it came to literature: assessed his progress by the number of words written, and seemed never to start a book without predicting the number he'd sell.

Still, he was a brilliant aphorist and on the 'right' side of many issues. His attitudes towards racism were complex, but he saw and spoke out against anti-semitism in Austria at the turn of the century, and condemned US imperialism in the Phillipines.

He convinced General Grant to write his memoirs; his publishing firm (during one of its rare periods of financial stability) actually brought out the book.

Powers is a readable, playful writer. In an early newspaper story Twain is described as 'absquatulating' after insulting the Lady's Sanitary Commission in Nevada. Powers manages to find at least 5 more sentences where 'absquatulate' is the necessary word.

This is a whole lotta Twain (627 pages not counting the footnotes), but worth it.

What a slog. I have never taken so long to get through a book. The writing style was dense. Now I know every detail about Mark Twain and 70 years of American history I guess.

Mark Twain was a complex man: courageous and bold, gregarious, not knowing when to keep his mouth shut, loving and devoted to his wife and children, unpredictable, a world traveler always at the best hotel in town.

Ron Powers has painted a portrait of Twain's life that demonstrates all of his brilliance and convolutions. Most of its contents were unknown to me (and probably you too).

I have only had the barest knowledge of Samuel Clemens' aka Mark Twain's upbringing. This particular work is a forensic examination of his life. It is not a quick or a light read. It is the serious telling of Twain's life.

A great book about Mark Twain, his strengths and his weaknesses. His life defines an era when writers were important, prominent people who guided their nation. His writing of the novel, Huckleberry Finn, depicted the burning issues of his day: the struggle against slavery and the power of the church. He was one of the first authors to do "tours" traveling across the nation on the newly built railroad system. He was the first to do "stand up" comedy. His early life on the steamboats made him a gambling man and he invested in what could have been the first typewriter if it hadn't been so large and inefficient. He married into money and lived in several beautiful homes, the most spectacular one is now a museum in Hartford, Connecticut. This book by Ron Powers is thorough and well-written. If you are intrigued by this era and this writer, you will enjoy this book.

An adventurous life filled with tragic losses and much success.

This book is more interesting if the index is used to find topics of interest. I find that I pick up the book every now and then and will do this. Whatever I read is interesting. But when I read the book from the beginning, it seemed tedious. Twain is an interesting life, no doubt.

Mark Twain: A Life is an audacious undertaking. Twain's singular career was so rich and varied, and his inner life so complicated, that he defies easy categorization. Except for the occasional misstep, Powers pulls it off. He marshaled his own considerable expertise and mined the archives of the Mark Twain Papers project to produce a narrative that not only documents Twain's life but also demonstrates how the great author personified an emerging nation. Critics agreed that the book's historical context is its greatest asset and praised Powers for avoiding the pitfalls of many of Twain's recent biographers. Some reviewers were more forgiving than others of the book's shortcomings: Powers occasionally mixes up his facts and his prose is overwrought at times. Nonetheless, a fine effort.

This is an excerpt from a review published in Bookmarks magazine.

Great book about one of America's legendary authors

The book is not easy to read at times because of the amount of details in the life of Mark twain. However, this is where the magic is to be found. It is in the details that you get to meet and know this legendary author, in a very intimate way. I have a whole different opinion of Mark twain because of this book. His humor, his military time during the civil war, his time as a steamboat pilot, his penchant for making dubious investments, all this and more. I highly recommend this book.

An enjoyable, well-crafted and interesting read. Would be nice if photos were presented as people are introduced in bios rather than put at the end. Would help to connect more with the characters.

I'm really not sure what I made of this book. I think my reaction to it definitely says more about me than it does the author or his approach. I felt curiously detached from it; I never at any point came to care about Samuel Clemens, alias Mark Twain. He didn't come alive for me in these pages. In fact, he felt very much more like a character from one of his own books than a real living, breathing person, and not an entirely likeable one either.

I certainly think a lot of that can be ascribed to Powers' style - this book was as full of humourous asides and dramatic foreshadowing and wry commentary as any of Mark Twain's writings. And certainly if ever there was a subject who would suit that kind of approach it would be Mark Twain. Perhaps that was the point? Or perhaps, given the duality of Sam Clemens/Mark Twain and his shifting, mischievous, subtle nature, it would be impossible to really get to the heart of him in any biography, regardless of the approach.

I suppose I'm used to the more straight-forward form of biography, hence why I hesitate to lay any blame at the author's feet. Powers certainly knows his subject - the level of research that must have gone into this is quite impressive - and his admiration for Mark Twain's work and his influence on the emerging American 'voice' clearly knows no bounds. Another area where we differ, and perhaps something else that impacted on my enjoyment. As I said, I think this is one where it very much comes down to personal taste, much like Twain's book. So perhaps in that sense it is a biography admirably fitted to its subject.