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Mark Twain said at the top of an 1865 letter to his brother, "for I don't want any absurd 'literary remains' and 'unpublished letters of Mark Twain' published after I am planted."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