The Making of Mark Twain: A Biography

This fond but clear-eyed life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens will charm as well as inform scholars and general readers. Lauber describes the childhood of ""Little Sam,'' obstreperous in spite of his frailty, and the upward-striving years that created Mark Twain, world-famous satirist and classic author. Born in 1835 in a Missouri townone of many places where his dreamy father failed to support his familyTwain went out into the world early, looking for work. His roistering days are vividly evoked, covering the years as he progressed from a journeyman printer, a river-boat pilot, a miner, reporter in the West, etc. The account ends with Twain's marriage in 1870 to Olivia Langdon (his beloved ``Livy''), at home in Hartford where ``the apprenticeships had ended; the time of accomplishment was at hand.'' There he set to work on Tom Sawyer, Old Times on the Mississippi, and Huckleberry Finn, his enduring legacy. Lauber is a university professor in Canada. Photos not seen by PW.October 30