The Life of Mark Twain: The Middle Years, 1871–1891

In the scrupulously chronicled second installment of an expected three-part biography (after The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835–1871), Scharnhorst, professor emeritus of English at the University of New Mexico, reconstructs the period during which Samuel Clemens—aka Mark Twain—wrote many of his most popular works, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Picking up with a now world-renowned Twain moving to Elmira, N.Y., Scharnhorst humanizes rather than lionizes his subject, who struggles with writer’s block, sends amorous letters to his wife while on tour, and basks in constant attention while harrumphing he’d rather be left alone. However, Scharnhorst is careful not to bowdlerize Twain, resisting modern attempts to exonerate him of the anti-Asian prejudice in the play Ah Sin, co-written with Bret Harte. Unnecessarily weighed down by exhaustive research, the book’s tendency to linger over minute details detracts from the vivid drama at its heart, in which, as Twain’s fame and notoriety grows, he proves unable to resist speculating in disastrous ventures, leading to his and his family’s departure from their Hartford, Conn., mansion for financial exile in Europe. Despite some flaws, this remains a masterful, detailed account of America’s most famous literary wit. (June)