Mark Twain the man who would become

the man who would become America's first

Reprinted here for the first time is Franzen's controversial l996 investigation of the fate of the American novel in what became known as "the Harper's essay

" --Lauren Groff

Because there is a breaking point

Mark Twain the man who would become"Comprehensive, enthralling . . . Mark Twain flows like the Mississippi River, its prose propelled by Mark Twain's own exuberance." The Boston Globe "Chernow writes with such ease and clarity . . . For all its length and detail, [Mark Twain] is deeply absorbing throughout." The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American