Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers

Sometimes when I hit errors in a book I want to hurl it across the room.
Then I realize that the author is human, and to err is human  and to hurl
is,
well, that's about the only thing critics are good  for. Hurling, or making
us
hurl.

If I wasn't on this multi-year effort to compile a  day-by-day reference
book
of Sam's life, I probably wouldn't have caught the  errors in the first half
of Ron Powers' book.  The first error I snagged my  eye on was taken for a
typo--then I found 3 others, and I'm just past  halfway. I'll list these and
offer a few thoughts on Ron's writing. Opinion of  course.

Page 192 "...promptly at 7:30 p.m. Monday, May 7,  1867, slouched onto the
Cooper Union stage, a Lincoln of literature in  chrysalis."  - CORRECTION:
The
date was Monday, May 6th.

Page 238 "On June 17, Sam reported to Bliss that "the  book is finished, & I
think it will do...." CORRECTION: The date of this  letter was Tuesday, June
23rd, 1868, as his own footnote shows for this quote,  from MTL v.2 p232

Page 278 "Before a full house of 2,600 on November  11..."
The date of Sam's Boston lecture was the 10th, not the  11th. On the 11th he
lectured in Charleston, Mass. (MTL v3.p390-1 and many other  sources)

Page 360 "On September 21...the Clemenses took  possession of their Nook
Farm
house at last."   The correct date is  Sunday, Sept. 20th, given in letters
of the same day to Howells and  supposed cousin Emma Parish. (MTL v.6
p233-7)

I realize these are simple date errors, and may not  mean much to anyone.
Still, they surprised me, though I'm anticipating a  veritible volume of
errata
on my own work, once published.  Many error  demons hide out, you see,
cloaking
themselves from sharp-eyed editors and other  fools.

A word about the style and quality of writing in  Powers' book: It's
fine--hi-falootin' as Sam might say, and goes in for a bit of  hyperbole
here and
there, luffing the jib and filling the scuppers with  goo. Still, It's a far
better work than Hoffman's "Inventing Mark Twain,"  I'd say, simply because
it
eschews a lot of judgment leaps about motivations and  causes.

There are things I see things that grate--this may be  due to my several
million words written and even more read about fiction and  other such
literary
fixings. First, the use of all the present-day comparisons  from the "Grand
Ole
Opry" to "Madonna" or references to later writers and  trends--these tend to
wear thin. These sorts of uses, in time, work against  the credibility of a
book because they can date the work.  Worse, such  references lend the
narration
a rather glib tone here and there, and yank the  reader back into the
present,
just when the reader's "fictive dream" is  peeking over Sam's shoulder.  I
should compile a list of these, but if  you've read the book, you know what
I
mean, and if you haven't, now you're  alerted for them. One reviewer claimed
that we finally had a bio of Clemens that  rivaled his use of language--I
really
had to hurl on that one. Sam may have  lusted after eastern respectability,
but he didn't succumb to what he'd call  "puppyism" of the Bret Harte sort.
Powers' writing in spots feels elitist, even  snobbish.

For example, in describing Adah Isaacs Menken, the  famous risque stage
performer, Powers (page 135) wrote that Menken was "what a  later, jazzier
age
would call the Red-Hot Mama....the spiritual godmother of  Marilyn Monroe,
Gypsy
Rose Lee, and Madonna."  Perhaps I resent reading a  book on Clemens and
being
force-fed images of Madonna or other moderns. Call me  picky, but it's a
ploy
that doesn't work for me. Hindsight can crush a good  biography. Still this
work escapes partly.

But let me not be too critical. I believe this is one  of the top 2 or 3
bios
available. I still like Paine--even with all the  inaccuracies and glaring
omissions, the multi-volume work of Paine exudes an  honest love for the
man,
and is a pretty good read for a work of  1912.

And to Mark Perry, author of "Grant and Twain," one  small but substantive
correction. Sam did NOT meet Livy in Elmira, and though  the exact date is
disputable, most would agree he met her in New York City,  probably at the
St.
Nicholas Hotel.
(P. 41 "In 1868, Twain met Olivia Langdon--'Livy'--the  sister of a friend,
in Elmira, New York.")

Give me a break. I hate sloppy work like that.

David H Fears
WIP: Mark Twain Day-By-Day
projected pub. date: Sept 2007

Still, the writing overall is good, if a bit  overblown. But somehow I think
Sam would hate it.