Mark Twain, who was often photographed with a cigar, once remarked that he came into the world looking for a light. This biography, published on the centennial of the writer's death focuses on Mark Twain, humorist and quipster, and sheds light on the wit, pathos, and tragedy of the author of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
"Very probably the best of the many Mark Twain biographies?one that should be preeminent for quite a long time."-Frederick Crews, author of Follies of the Wise: Dissenting Essays
"This biography offers irresistibly concise and beautifully paced chapters that will take readers through this author's amazing life and work-its humor, its pathos, and its tragedy-in brisk and compelling fashion."-Ed Folsom, author of Walt Whitman's Native Representations
"There has definitely never been a Twain biography so comprehensive in scope and so sagaciously opinionative."-Alan Gribben, author of Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction, and co-founder of Mark Twain Circle of America
"Provocative and well-reasoned."
