Mark Twain

Starred review from August 1, 2005
After dozens of biographies of Twain (1835–1910), one can fairly ask, "Why another?" But Powers, who wrote about Twain's Missouri childhood in Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain
, early on promises "interpretive portraiture," which entails doing something that has never quite been accomplished before: presenting the totality of the man in his many moods and phases of life, including acerbic son and brother, prank-prone youth, competitive writer, demanding friend, loving husband and, eventually, globe-trotting celebrity. In doing so, Powers succeeds in validating his own assertion that Twain became "the
representative figure of his times." Powers demonstrates that Twain embodied America during the tumultuous latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, from the divided self of the Civil War, through the unstable prosperity of the Gilded Age, to the verge of WWI. All the while, Twain asserted in both literature and life his confidence in New World progress over Old World conservatism. Unlike Twain, whose prose Powers characterizes as "wild and woolly," the biographer is lucid and direct while maintaining a steady hand on the tiller of Twain's life as it courses a twisty path as wide and treacherous as the Mississippi itself. Powers, a wise, if loquacious captain, takes us on a wonderful journey from beginning to end. 16 pages of photos not seen by PW
. Agent, Jim Hornfischer.

Starred review from December 5, 2005
Many readers of Powers's biography of Mark Twain noted the historian's remarkable sensitivity to the use of rhetoric, dialect and drama in Twain's work. As the audio's narrator, Powers proves he intuitively understands Twain's flair for language and drama because he possesses those gifts himself. Few authors could pull off a credible oral rendition of Twain's life, yet Powers manages it with humor and pathos. His voice is accessible, with a gravelly, down-home feel that fits the subject perfectly. His rendering of Twain's famous Missouri drawl never descends into caricature, and he obviously has a wonderful time imagining how Twain might have imitated other people's voices. Powers has a well-honed sense of humor, and listeners can almost see the twinkle in his eye as he recounts Twain's more acerbic observations. Gentle guitar and banjo music provide appropriately folksy interludes between sections of the book. The enhanced CD features Thomas Edison's three-minute silent film of Mark Twain, which is the only known footage of the white-suited satirist. Even in old age, his famous swaggering gait is on full display. Simultaneous release with the Free Press hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 1).