"Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835 under Halley's Comet the rambunctious Twain was an
early teller of tall tales. He left his home in Missouri at an early age piloted steamboats on
the Mississippi and arrived in the Nevada Territory during the silver-mining boom. Before long
he had accepted a job at the local newspaper where he barged into vigorous discourse and
debate hoaxes and hijinks. After moving to San Francisco he published stories that attracted
national attention for their brashness and humor writing under a pen name soon to be
immortalized. Chernow draws a richly nuanced portrait of the man who shamelessly sought fame
and fortune and crafted his celebrity persona with meticulous care. Twain eventually settled
with his wife and three daughters in Hartford where he wrote some of his most well-known
works: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Life on the Mississippi and Adventures of Huckleberry
Finn earning him further acclaim. He threw himself into American politics emerging as the
nation's most notable pundit. While his talents as a writer and speaker flourished his madcap
business ventures eventually forced him into bankruptcy 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"--
