Mark Twain by Ron Chernow

My book for September was Mark Twain by Ron Chernow. I finished book while we were at the Brookdale Estate on the South Africa trip. I have read two other of Chernow's books: Grant in September of 2022 and Hamilton in January of 2017.

I didn't realize how famous Mark Twain was while he was alive. I was surprised at how big a celebrity he was. In a time before mass media, he was known throughout the world. The only modern comparison that comes to mind is Taylor Swift.

Twain had a varied career as a young man. He worked as a printer's apprentice and typesetter for various newspapers. Twain qualified as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. He briefly served as a volunteer with a Confederate militia before heading west to Nevada with his brother. Twain tried his luck as a silver prospector. Finding himself broke, he returned to what he knew best: journalism. He took a job as a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada, where he first began using the name Mark Twain for his articles.

Mark Twain married into a very wealthy family. His wife was the daughter of Jervis Langdon. Langdon was a wealthy New York coal and lumber businessman. Twain traveled the world, including the Holy Land. Later in life, he and his family lived in Europe for nine years, including Germany, France, Switzerland, and England.

Mark Twain coined the term "The Gilded Age." In the spirit of the Glided Age, Twain was a keen but often unlucky entrepreneur, inventor and publisher. He patented a number of inventions, including a self-pasting scrapbook, and invested heavily in new technologies like the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter. Many of these business ventures failed, leading to his bankruptcy. His publishing company published Grant's autobiography; I read the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant in 2005.

At over 1,000 pages, the book is a load. While important in understanding his life, the last 200 pages focus a lot on his relationship with his two surviving daughters and his secertary Isabel Van Kleek Lyon after his wife dies. The youngest of the two daughters, Jean, suffered from epilepsy. A condition that was poorly understood at the time, Jean's illness created a great deal of stress for her and her family.

I enjoyed the book. I recommend it, but you have to realize that it is a large commitment. As an aside, I have never read any of Mark Twain's books. [Note to self], I am going to add Innocents Aboard to my reading list.