2018 School Spending Survey Report
Chernow has made a writing career by reintroducing modern readers to relatable but flawed American historical figures (Ulysses S. Grant, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton). He turns to an American literary figure here, and possibly one of the most well-known of all: Mark Twain. Twain is so deeply ingrained as an image in culture— for both his iconography (the bushy mustache, the white suit, the bowtie) and his classic novels, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court—that many might think they know everything about Twain already. But Chernow once again demonstrates his impeccably deep research, highlighting Twain’s better qualities without ignoring the issues he grappled with in his life—centrally, the racism of his era and the troubling ways in which he sometimes related to women.
VERDICT This belongs in both public and academic libraries and will open a new discussion of Twain’s cultural standing, as Chernow’s previous biographies have also accomplished.
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