The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835–1871

In 1912, two years after Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens, died, his literary executor, Albert Bigelow Paine, published a hefty multivolume biography of the author. Since then, hundreds more books about Twain—including many full biographies—have appeared. Until now, however, none has challenged the scope of Paine's epic work, despite the explosion of new information and proliferation of interpretations of Twain's genius. This first volume of a new three-volume work by noted Twain authority Scharnhorst (Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English; editor, Twain in His Own Time) is thus a welcome contribution to literary scholarship. While covering Twain's busy life through 1871—by which time he was married and settled—it offers a richly documented and often engaging account of his youth in Missouri; his steamboat piloting, prospecting, and newspaper reporting years; and the journeys to Hawaii and the Old World that made him famous and launched his writing career. While Paine's biography is justly criticized for being uncritical to the point of being fawning, Scharnhorst's book sometimes leans too far in the opposite direction and is occasionally marred by armchair psychoanalysis.