Who Is Mark Twain?

Twenty-six wickedly funny, thought-provoking essays by the celebrated American author—"Twain's wit and lethally precise powers of description are on full display" (NPR). "More than 100 years after [Twain] wrote these stories, they remain not only remarkably funny but remarkably modern. . . . Ninety-nine years after his death, Twain still manages to get the last laugh." —Vanity Fair "You had better shove this in the stove," Mark Twain said at the top of an 1865 letter to his brother, "for I don't want any absurd 'literary remains' and 'unpublished letters of Mark Twain' published after I am planted." He was joking, of course. But when Mark Twain died in 1910, he left behind the largest collection of personal papers created by any nineteenth-century American author. Who Is Mark Twain? presents twenty-six wickedly funny, disarmingly relevant pieces by the American master—a man who was well ahead of his time. "Who Is Mark Twain? possesses one inestimable virtue: Its author is never dull. . . . At the heart of his work lies that greatest of all American qualities: irreverence." —Washington Post "Worth reading for the sheer pleasure of rediscovering why this writer was so popular in his day." —Los Angeles Times