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.