"Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography" by Justin Kaplan 1st/1st HC/DJ 1994

Description: "Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography" was written by Justin Kaplan and published by Simon & Schuster in New York in 1994. This is a hardcover, first edition, first printing of this fine 424-page biography, featuring more than three-dozen black-and-white photographs and illustrations. The book earned author Kaplan both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award. From the dustjacket blurb: “Mark Twain, the American comic genius who portrayed, named, and in part exemplified America’s ‘Gilded Age,’ comes alive—a presence felt, an artist understood—in Justin Kaplan’s extraordinary biography.“With brilliant immediacy, ‘Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain’ brings to life a towering literary figure whose dual persona symbolized the emerging American conflict between down-to-earth morality and freewheeling ambition. As Mark Twain, he was the Mississippi riverboat pilot, the satirist with a fiery hatred of pretension, and the author of such classics as ‘Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Huckleberry Finn.’ As Mr. Clemens, he was the star who married an heiress, built a palatial estate, threw away fortunes on harebrained financial schemes, and lived the extravagant life that Mark Twain despised. Kaplan effectively portrays the triumphant-tragic man whose achievements and failures, laughter and anger, reflect a crucial generation in our past as well as his own dark, divided, and remarkably contemporary spirit.“The book begins as the thirty-one-year-old Mark Twain, carrying bottled within himself the experience of his boyhood in Hannibal and his coming-of-age on the Mississippi and on Nevada’s silver-rush frontier, quits San Francisco and the old elemental America of the open spaces. He is heading east for the burgeoning new urban America of commerce, invention, finance, and status, where he is destined to marry well, hobnob with the rich and influential, throw away fortunes on tragically alluring schemes...and produce literary works that fulfill and go beyond the vocation he has already acknowledged: “to excite the ‘laughter’ of God’s creatures.”“He is heard, seen, made palpable. The texture of his marriage with Olivia Langdon, the protean presence of Mark Twain on the lecture platform, his friendships and enmities—virtually all his closest relationships partook of both—spring to life. His writing and publishing experience is organically re-created. His endurance in the face of personal tragedy, his unrivaled charm, his compulsion to quarrel, his humility and his vanity are evoked and felt. His wit rings through the book.“‘Honest poverty is a gem that even a King might be proud to call his own, but I wish to sell out. I have sported that kind of jewelry long enough.’ Thus the young Mark Twain, on the eve of world fame, spoke his disgust at a money-centered society in that blatantly philistine voice that he chose for his most savage satirical declarations. But all his life—racked by his own ambivalences—he was to embrace the values of that society. “‘Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain’ brilliantly conveys this towering literary figure who was himself a symbol of the peculiarly American conflict between moral scrutiny and the drive to succeed. Mr. Clemens lived the Gilded Life that Mark Twain despised. The merging and fragmenting of these and other identities, as the biography unfolds, results in a magnificent projection of the whole man; the great comic spirit; and the exuberant, tragic human being, who, his friend William Dean Howells said, was ‘sole, incomparable, the Lincoln of our literature.’”From the reviews: “Even the best scholars, reading this book, will find themselves dangerously close to unqualified praise . . . Not only does Kaplan write economically and lucidly but he has a beautiful ear for Mark Twain’s language, invention, and comedy.”— John Kenneth GalbraithThe book is in fine, collectible condition, with no torn or bent pages, no scratches, stains or inscriptions, no remainder marks, no bookplate, no ex-library, no book club edition, no flaws of any sort. It is as new but for the original price being price-clipped (see fourth photo).The dustjacket is otherwise in equally fine shape and is protected in a clear and removable archival cover.Please see the photos for a fuller description and author profile.BLK BOX 67PLEASE SEE THE OTHER TITLES NOW LISTED IN MY EBAY STORE: DISTANT VOYAGE BOOKSPAYPAL PREFERREDWill combine shipping.All items are well packed and are normally mailed within two days of payment being received.My 100% feedback rating is valuable to me. If you are satisfied with a transaction, please leave feedback and I will do the same.Questions welcome. 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Price: 15 USD

Location: Yorba Linda, California

End Time: 2025-01-28T20:53:57.000Z

Shipping Cost: 5 USD