I'd recommend Michael Shelden's *Mark Twain: Man in White; The Grand Adventure of His Final Years*, in conjunction with Ron Powers' great one-volume biography. Shelden's book is a great complement to Powers' bio, in my opinion, because (1) the last decade of Twain's life is the weakest part of Powers's book and (2) Shelden's very well-researched book provides a detailed look at this period of Twain's life, when he was an international celebrity, and a much different picture of Twain in this period than depicted in prior scholarship, e.g., Hamlin Hill's *Mark Twain: God's Fool.* Martin Zehr On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 9:55 PM, Tim Esh <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Sorry for spamming your inboxs, but perhaps the third time (from my other > email account) is the trick. > > I=E2=80=99m designing an advanced undergraduate seminar on Mark Twain. I > wa= > nt to > include a critical biography, and after some research, I am currently > considering assigning the 2005 Ron Powers biography _Mark Twain: A Life_. > I=E2=80=99m curious what biographies others recommend (and perhaps why). > Thanks, > Tim > > P.S. Oddly, my messages made it onto the form archives without > transmogrification into gibberish. < > https://listserv.yorku.ca/cgi-bin/wa?A2=3Dind1611&L=3Dtwain- > l&T=3D0&P=3D724= > 5> >