PINE NUTS – Ron Chernow’s Mark Twain Biography
June 20, 2025 | McAvoy Lane
I just beat the odds at Harrah’s Sports Book by finishing Ron Chernow’s thousand-page biography of Mark Twain before becoming the world’s oldest man. As a product of Mrs. Blumberger’s Remedial Reading Class, it was mostly uphill work, which became Sisyphean toward the end…
Chernow gives us three parts Sam Clemens the Heavyhearted, to one part Mark Twain the Lighthearted, and in doing so, he endowed me with more heartburn than all previous Twain biographies combined. Yet I could not help but admire Chernow’s relentless research. Here is the Edison footage he refers to…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtzlVxhaBao
Mr. Chernow forgot to mention that the audio of Twain’s voice, recorded separately in wax, melted in Edison’s laboratory fire, dang it!
Adding to the affiliation in my reading Chernow’s bio, is the memories his book evokes. The bed Sam and Livy spent a fortune on in Italy, with swiveling angels adorning the headboard, Sam positioned at the bottom of the bed so he could see where their money was spent. And for one moment in time, I was there, shooting a documentary for the History Channel.
Not unlike Twain, Chernow is a prodigious noticer. He even dug up this note that Sam wrote to a friend while courting Olivia, “She says she loves me, but hopes to get over it.”
I never knew Clara was shot at through the window of her New York apartment, and that she thought Ashcroft had ordered her shot. That is a cold case worth reopening…
I felt Mr. Chernow spent too much time on Sam’s entrepreneurial excesses,
Sam’s carbuncles, and Sam’s avuncular angelfish associations. But overall,
I thoroughly enjoyed his sometimes wearing biography, and look forward to hearing
my Twainian friends’ reviews…
If you’re hoping to check it out of your library you should expect to be put on a waiting list, which will give you an opportunity to start lifting weights, as Mr. Chernow’s tome weighs in at four pounds.
Personally, I still prefer Justin Kaplan’s 1966 biography, “Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain,” which won a Pulitzer Prize, and Ron Powers’s biography of 2005, “Mark Twain: A Life.” Chernow credits Percival Everett for his recent Pulitzer winning novel: “In 2024 Percival Everett published an excellent, poignant retelling of Huck Finn entitled James, in which Jim narrates the story, and protects Huck, instead of the other way around.”
Spoiler Alert: Then too, when everybody dies, I suffered all the symptoms of grieving,
including tears big as hockey pucks streaming down my cheeks, almost as if they were my own family members. And in a strange way, they were, for over the decades I have become closer to Samuel Clemens than ever I was to Dr. R.M. Layne, my own dear father…
In closing, we are going to present the lighter side of “Mark Twain in Tahoe” and “Mark Twain in Hawaii” at St. Pat’s outdoor amphitheater this summer. For information contact our North Tahoe Welcome Center at 775-832-1606 and we’ll hope to bring you a smile…