Mark Twain

December 14, 2009
On the centenary of Twain’s death, two books on his last years.
Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years
Michael Shelden
. Random
, $30 (528p) ISBN 978-0-679-44800-6

Shelden (Orwell
) centers on the writer’s signature white suit—which first raised a ruckus when he donned it in the wintery month of December 1906 for an event at the Library of Congress. Shelden also sets the record straight with respect to Twain’s continuing humor into his old age in spite of the deaths of his beloved wife and his epileptic daughter, Jean, and his often tempestuous relations with musical daughter Clara. Twain’s last years were chock-full, including a feud with Mary Baker Eddy and encounters with Bram Stoker, Bernard Shaw, Helen Keller, and others. Much of the emotional void was filled by Twain’s complex but seemingly platonic relationships with a series of girls. The last part of Twain’s life was cynically managed by a team of his secretary, Isabel Lyon, and business manager, Ralph Ashcroft. Here is a well-researched book for all Twainiacs as well as those coming to the subject’s late years for the first time. 46 photos.

December 1, 2009
A portrait of Mark Twain's final years offers some revisionist history but overloads a potentially compelling narrative with anecdotal minutiae.

With April 21, 2010, marking the centennial of the death of perhaps America's most celebrated novelist, biographers will be aiming to shine new light on corners of that oft-explored life. Former Baltimore Sun fiction critic Shelden (English/Indiana State Univ.; Graham Greene: The Enemy Within, 1994, etc.) stakes his claim on the author's final three-and-a-half years, a period during which he was in self-proclaimed"retirement" and had previously suffered his way through great tragedies, the death of his wife and young daughter and the collapse of his finances. Yet this is also the period in which Twain developed the persona that remains indelible in the public's consciousness: the showman in the white suit, which he debuted at a Library of Congress copyright hearing less than four years before his death, and which Shelden milks for all it is worth (and more). Twain's final years have often been perceived as dark and bitter, yet Shelden maintains he"was also funnier and a lot happier than later generations of critics and biographers have been willing to admit." The attempt to sustain that theme runs counter to the more riveting plot that is in the margins through much of the book but moves center stage toward the end—the power struggle between Twain's daughters and his secretary, who assumed much of the responsibility formerly handled by his wife, who may have had romantic designs on him and who ultimately conspired with, and married, his business advisor to try to take control of his fortune. Unfortunately, Shelden devotes too many pages to Twain's honorary Oxford doctorate, trips to Bermuda, a bungled burglary, the singing career of his daughter and encounters between"the most famous, and the most beloved, person in America" with other famous folk, many of whom Twain neither knew well nor liked much.

Too little light shed on Twain's work and legacy.

(COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Starred review from February 1, 2010
In most biographies of Mark Twain, the last few years of the writer's life are summarized quickly. For, after all, it was ending in bitterness: his adored wife, Livy, and favorite daughter, Suzy, were dead; there was trouble among the other family members; his retirement castle, Stormfield, was robbed amid a volley of gunfire; his supposedly loyal helpers, Isabel Lyon and husband Ralph Ashcroft, had been long trying to wrest control of Stormfield from him and nearly succeeded, thanks to his initial lackadaisical supervision of his account books. Here, Shelden (English, Indiana State Univ.; "Orwell") tells the story of Twain's last 40 months, richly detailing fresh facts new to most readers and fleshing out the conventional Twain biography to make the man's life complete. Shelden gives us the ultimately sad story of Twain's final months, displaying evidence of the genuine human friendship between Twain and H.H. Rogers, the Standard Oil magnate known to most readers as merely a faceless figure who guided Twain out of bankruptcy. VERDICT This superb biography, told in a nonacademic tone, is saturated with sadness, but every reader will be grateful that, finally, Mark Twain appears before us, warts and all. Highly recommended.Charles C. Nash, Cottey Coll., Nevada, MO

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 1, 2010
Of Mark Twain in his final years, William Dean Howells remarks, His literature grew less and less and his life more and more. In Twains remarkable late-life surge in vitality, Sheldon discerns the surprising origin of the authors iconic image. Challenging the widespread belief that Twain dwindled into impotent despair, Sheldon chronicles his last years as the triumph of an exuberant showman. This, after all, is the man who unexpectedly appears for a Congressional hearing clad in a stunning white suit and who never thereafter abandons his new sartorial luster. This, too, is the comic genius who in his seventies still sparkles with irreverent wit. Though it flashes through a few final published works (including a spoof on the afterlife and an iconoclastic swipe at Shakespeare), Twains septuagenarian wit mostly serves to punctuate an amazing range of nonliterary enterprises: building a new family mansion, waging legal battles to secure his legacy, underwriting a theater for impoverished children, claiming an honorary degree from Oxford. Yet, as Shelden recognizes, that wit ultimately reflects personal resilience in the face of financial reverses and family tragedy. Even on his deathbed, Twain rallies to bid farewell with wisecracks. Impressive scholarship delivers the authentic accents of a truly American voice.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)