"Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography" is a wonderful narrative about the lives

of two men, embodied in one person. Both of these men were vaguely similar, but astoundingly different from one another. As Mark Twain, the person was a literary genius and a bold adventurer who cared little for earthly luxuries. His knack for adventures took him to places such as South America, where he intended to get rich marketing coca and where he spent days as an apprentice pilot on a steamboat on the Mississippi River. As Mr. Clemens, he was the prince who made fortunes and lost them on risky ventures with relative ease. He married an heiress and lived an extravagant life. Justin Kaplan portrays both aspects of the man's life in a wonderful manner. This biography carries the great man through the glorious successes and bitter tragedies that he came across in his life. It gives the readers a wonderful insider's view on the life of America's greatest humorist and peerless statesman.

Kaplan portrays both sides of the life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens who was born on November 30, 1835 to John Marshal and Jane Lampton Clemens in Florida, Missouri. Later he would embark on an eventful life, without

Discussing the character of Clemens, Kaplan is sure that Mr. Clemens was not a psychologically stable man. In psychological parlance he would doubtless be described as manic-depressive. His depressed periods, however, had real cause. In addition to money problems, he experienced personal tragedies. Only one of his four children, Clara, survived him. The deaths of a son and two daughters were a lasting grief. Although he suffered frequent bouts of illness himself, he survived his beloved wife, Olivia, whose death in 1904 was a terrible blow to him. Most of the financial worries, which plagued him so often, were the result of him impulsive nature and weakness for get-rich-quick schemes, as well as his extravagant taste.

Kaplan writes the biography of Twain in a manner like no other biography of the man. It is because Kaplan provides the readers with unique insights on the person. He recounts the early misfortunes of Clemens as, after the death of his father in 1847, he was forced to leave school and take care of his family with his brother Orion. Their father hadn't left much wealth for them, but he endowed them with a knack for engaging in optimistic ventures promising quick riches. Clemens went out in the world without proper schooling and became a self-taught man. This lack of proper schooling was never evident in any of his lectures or his works. This becomes a primary force in Kaplan's narrative because later we are to read about how the highly learned people of the world would be all ears when listening to the words of Mark Twain.

which we would have been deprived of a treasure of masterpieces. This was the life of Mark Twain.

One of the greatest tragedies of Clemens life was the sickness and then death of his wife Olivia Clemens in the year 1904. He loved

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Approximate Word count = 1208
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)