I am posting this review on behalf of Dave Thomson who wrote it.

- Barbara

~~~~~

BOOK REVIEW

Susan Bivin Aller. _Mark Twain: A & E Biography_. Lerner Publications,
2001. Softcover, 8.49 x 5.89. Pp. 112.  $7.95. ISBN 0-8225-9696-2.

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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by
Dave Thomson

Copyright (c) 2001 Mark Twain Forum.  This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.

Susan Bivin Aller's biography _Mark Twain_ is one of thirty-five books in a
series of A&E publications covering the lives of politicians, athletes,
show business luminaries, and famous authors including Edgar Allan Poe,
Jack London, Jane Austen, Louisa May Alcott and Maya Angelou. Aller's
contribution to this series is a biography of Mark Twain aimed at young
readers in grades 6 through 12. Aller's treatment of the life of Samuel
Clemens follows a Horatio Alger theme of the rags to riches success story.


_Mark Twain: A & E Biography_ consists of seven chapters, a bibliography,
index, numerous photos and illustrations. Also included are four single
page excerpts from _Roughing It_ (the Pony Express sequence); _The
Celebrated Jumping Frog_; _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ (the introduction
of Huck Finn); and _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (the "kings is mostly
rapscallions.")

Aller introduces her reader to Sam Clemens with the a Dickensian approach
of young Sam, the printer's devil, living under deprived circumstances in
the office of Joseph Ament's _Missouri Courier_ in 1848 Hannibal.  And in
one of the first failings at historical accuracy, Aller's caption under the
daguerreotype of young Sam, the printer's devil, incorrectly identifies the
compositor's stick containing the letters SAM as a "belt buckle (p. 6)."
The error of misidentification of this picture is not uncommom but it
serves as a warning sign that Aller's book will lack a measure of
credibility.

Aller documents Clemens' career as a steamboat pilot in a Chapter titled
"Pilot on the Proud Mississippi." Aller tells her readers that when the
Paul Jones left Cincinnati, Horace Bixby was nursing a sore foot and that
is why Sam spelled him as steersman during much of the trip to New Orleans.
Bixby is characterized as having "an explosive temper and expected
perfection" from his cubs (p. 35) adding that he was "a hard taskmaster,
furious when his cub made mistakes (p. 37)."

Aller chronicles Clemens' trip in 1866 to the Sandwich Islands and his
meeting with U.S. minister to China Anson Burlingame who advises the young
journalist to "Seek companionship among men of superior intellect and
character... Never affiliate with inferiors; always climb (p. 51)."

Continuing to follow the Burlingame lead, Aller follows the 1867 voyage of
the Quaker City across the Atlantic wherein Sam meets cultivated matron
Mary Fairbanks and a young heir to a prosperous coal business named Charles
Langdon whose miniature portrait of his sister Olivia attracts Sam's
attention.

In this rags to riches portrait, Aller describes Clemens' 1870 marriage to
Livy and the building of their Hartford home financed "in large part with
(her) inherited fortune" which brings a "gilded life" to the boy "who had
grown up in poverty. The boy who had never seem a display of affection in
his family had become a young father, sharing embraces with his wife and
daughters... The rough Westerner with only a grade-school education was an
honored member of the literary and cultural elite of the East Coast (p.
73)."

Clemens' 1882 visit to Hannibal is chronicled but Aller fails to mention
that it was one of many stops on a steamboat tour of the length of the
Mississippi River to stimulate memories and gather fresh material for
writing _Life on the Mississippi_. His ruinous investment in the Paige
typesetter is underplayed while the stock market crash of 1893 and
subsequent financial crisis is blamed for his bankruptcy.  Clemens' last
visit to Hannibal in 1902 is not mentioned.  The deaths of Susy and Livy
are briefly chronicled in a chapter titled "Thunder-Strokes." Jean's death
is included in the last chapter "Final Harvest" six paragraphs prior to
Clemens' own death.

Aller's major errors in _Mark Twain: A & E Biography_ stem from her
inability to distinguish between fact and fiction in Mark Twain's
works--particularly in the adventures of fictional characters Tom Sawyer
and Huckleberry Finn. Aller's unsubstantiated claims gleaned from _The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ include:

Tom Blankenship, (who served as Clemens' model for Huck Finn) "knew how to
cure warts with dead cats (p. 23)" and had a "violent father (p. 76)."

The facts reflect that Woodson Blankenship was recalled by Clemens in his
_Autobiography_ as being the second official Town Drunkard, preceded by
General Gaines and succeeded by Jimmy Finn, but Woodson was never
characterized by Clemens as "violent."

Sam sneaked out at night in answer to catcalls from Tom and others and "a
lot of the...nighttime adventures took place in the cemetery (p. 23)."

This assumption is apparently based on Tom and Huck witnessing the grave
robbing and murder in _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_.

The fictional episode of Tom and Becky getting lost in the cave "wasn't far
from the truth of what had really happened to Sam and Laura (Hawkins)(p.
70)."

While Clemens did mention getting lost in the cave in his _Autobiography_
he only specified that his companion was "a lady" but not her identity.
Harold Speakman quoted Laura (Hawkins) Fraser in _Mostly Mississippi_
(1926):

"I was never lost in the cave, and I never went in alone with anyone...Mr.
Clemens was mistaken about that."

(Even Laura must have been convinced that Clemens meant everything that
Becky did in the novel was something she herself was supposed to have done
in actuality.)

Aller contends that the murderer Injun Joe was invented "to give the book
its rousing climax (p. 70)."

Perhaps she remembered the "rousing climax" of the 1938 Selznick film
version where Victor Jory as Joe plummets to his death in a chasm within
the cave rather than the far less rousing version of Joe's death in _The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ where he is found starved to death just inside
the recently sealed entrance to the cave.

One of the attractions of _Mark Twain: A & E Biography_ are the
twenty-eight illustrations and photos; several of them sharp, clear black
and white reproductions of photos I have never seen before including one of
Clemens with Josh Billings and Petroleum V. Nasby in an alternate pose that
is superior to the one that is commonly published.  Thirteen photos are
credited to the Mark Twain House in Hartford; six are from the Mark Twain
Papers; and the remainder from various sources.  Illustrations range from
bird's eye views of Hannibal and Virginia City to a Currier and Ives
steamboat race.

The front cover photo of the soft cover book is a mirror image of the
seated Twain in his white suit with his fingers interlaced.  Whether the
reversal of the photo was accidental or intentional remains in question.
The back cover has a striking small portrait of Twain at Saranac Lake from
1901.

Aller's mini-biography states she lives in West Hartford and is active in
programs at the Mark Twain House.  Her previous writing efforts have
included a young adult biography of J. M. Barrie, creator of Peter Pan.
Aller has done a creditable job in condensing the complex and eventful life
of Samuel Clemens into a brief introduction which one hopes would stimulate
young readers to explore further the life and writings of Mark Twain.

A&E's fifty minute Mark Twain television biography produced in 1995 does
not appear to have been the basis for the content of this book.