A while ago I read that George Orwell called Clemens the freest man who ever lived. I never get bored learning more about this guy, and this book touches on areas that others might have skipped, often with a more personal focus. There's also a closer analysis of Innocents Abroad and Huck Finn. (Btw, check out Hal Holbrook in M.T. Tonight)

It reads like a Ph.D. thesis - long and boring. Way too much information. The longest book I ever read.

Very interesting read... Interesting life...but I think a lot was still left out. A tough subject to write about in less than a few thousand pages LOL

An enjoyable book about a unique American. It's a dense biography that includes what I think is a balanced perspective of the man. I'm revisiting or introducing myself to several of his novels and plan to work through Twain's autobiography in the coming weeks. I'd recommend the book to those interested in Twain, his books, nineteenth century American literature, or the development of postbellum Civil War.

I finally finished it. After a full month of reading this very, very thorough, in-depth, academically written biography of one of America's first rockstars, Mr. Mark Twain.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Twain's real name) was a Civil War fugitive, failed silver miner, journalist, lecturer, author, entertainer, humorist, entrepreneur and world traveler. He also was troubled with hard financial times until the age of 65.
Be prepared to invest some time, should you tackle this one, as some heavy reading is involved.
All this being said, I can't imagine that a better bio of Twain can exist.

This was the most comprehensive book about Mark Twain's life that I could find. And it is a rather complex book to read by my standards. It's quite thick and filled with long involved sentences. Ron Powers is quite the writer and Mark Twain is a complicated subject to write about.

The book was a thorough study of Samuel Clemens' (aka Mark Twain) life and thought. The book dragged in certain places (its a long book at over 620+ pages) and there were numerous places where it felt like the author was trying to be too clever.

This was an incredible and witty biography, illuminating the man and through him the entire 19th century. I found wonderment and amusement and new understanding. Ron Powers is a wit who, in writing about the 19th century's great wit, does him justice. I enjoyed this book deeply. We see in it the panorama of a life richly lived. It's an unusual life, a Zelig-like tale, that continually finds Mark Twain at the center of his age. We learn that Clemmons was the original rock star, a performer. We experience his business failures and his general incompetence as a business man. Along the way, we explore writing as art and writing as commerce. We come to understand that he was not a nice man, but an angry cuss, and somehow beautiful for it. We learn that for all his opposition to religion and Christianity, it is not entirely clear that he ceased to believe in the possibility of communicating with the dead or the spirit world. (No wonder that the sister of my great grandfather Adolphus Schmidt thought she could write a Mark Twain novel, the unreadable Jap Heron, on the Ouija board - this kind of thing was just up Twain's alley.) We learn of his loves (first Laura, and then Libby, his spouse), his daughters and his friendships and are impressed somehow by his capacity to love. He seems to embody the character of the Victorian age - when we successfully imagine what made people laugh, we understand an era, and an entire lost world. I loved this book.
December 8 2009

I really liked the telling of Twain’s life, working in book quotes and correspondence to highlight his talent and life of challenges and success

This is a comprehensive biography that paints a picture of a man who is iconic and yet remains aloof. Powers goes deep into the story of Samuel Clemmons and his growth and development throughout his life. The story is compelling if a bit slow at times. This is the longest I've stayed with a book that wasn't a page turner because the man was so interesting. Twain grew from his youthful take on the world to the old sage who was cantankerous but wise. His ideas on race changed over time that alone makes the book worth of study on how to change a mind.

Fantastic bio/research on the Best of Best of Mark Twain's influences, life stories, and his transition from news journalist to creative storyteller, business man, and international icon making him the ultimate American Writer. Created two of the all time best fiction characters (Tom Sawyer/Huckleberry Finn) and arguably the most famous opening line in literary history. . .It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

After reading this, this reader is inspired to dust off a couple of his classics and revisit them again.

This is a good biography focusing on the middle portion of Twain's life. It is good but I enjoyed Michael Shelden's Mark Twain: Man in White on his later years more.