{"id":36737,"date":"2025-07-06T14:21:37","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T14:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/ron-chernow-on-the-life-of-mark-twain\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T14:21:37","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T14:21:37","slug":"ron-chernow-on-the-life-of-mark-twain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/ron-chernow-on-the-life-of-mark-twain\/","title":{"rendered":"Ron Chernow on the life of Mark Twain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>The Mississippi Valley is &#8220;as tranquil and reposeful as dreamland, and has nothing this-worldly about it \u2026 nothing to hang a fret or worry upon.&#8221; It&#8217;s a beautiful sentiment, and yet it contrasts with the fretful and worried life of the man who wrote those words: Samuel Clemens, known to the world by his pen name, Mark Twain.<\/p>\n<p>Twain died 115 years ago, but his books are still being read, and hotly debated, around the globe. It&#8217;s quite the legacy for a mischievous boy of modest means raised in Hannibal, Missouri, just steps away from the roaring Mississippi. It was, said Jim Waddell, &#8220;the international highway of 1835.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Waddell has portrayed Twain for three decades \u2013 a performance always in demand when Hannibal&#8217;s streets are filled each spring for the Twain on Main festival. It&#8217;s a good gig that requires of Waddell a clean white suit. &#8220;You keep the suit white by doing no work!&#8221; Waddell laughed. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-large\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/7756a550-a095-487b-a444-5eb4546c98fc\/thumbnail\/620x465\/77afa043d2e96eee79296d14858e3c26\/mark-twain-boyhood-home.jpg#\" alt=\"mark-twain-boyhood-home.jpg \" height=\"465\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/7756a550-a095-487b-a444-5eb4546c98fc\/thumbnail\/620x465\/77afa043d2e96eee79296d14858e3c26\/mark-twain-boyhood-home.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets1.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/7756a550-a095-487b-a444-5eb4546c98fc\/thumbnail\/1240x930\/60d4e9bd445047531693e330d19a0cf0\/mark-twain-boyhood-home.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">CBS News&#8217; Robert Costa with Mark Twain performer Jim Waddell, outside the Mark Twain Boyhood Home &amp; Museum in Hannibal, Mo.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                CBS News<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Korbin Asbury and Ainsley Ahrens competed against other eighth graders in the town to represent the characters Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher in Hannibal. &#8220;I love meeting the new people, &#8217;cause there&#8217;s 44 different countries that visited Hannibal last year,&#8221; said Asbury.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if she were surprised that an author who lived more than 100 years ago still seems so relevant today, Ahrens replied, &#8220;I am, but not really, because his words that he said, they still work with us today. They&#8217;re wise words.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wise words, with more than a touch of humor: <\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Twain is quoted as having called himself not just an American, but &#8220;<em>the<\/em> American.&#8221; &#8220;I think that part of the continuing fascination with Mark Twain is that he combines in his person both the best and the worst of our national culture,&#8221; said Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Ron Chernow. He has chronicled the lives of great Americans, perhaps most famously Alexander Hamilton, whose biography spawned the Broadway musical. Chernow&#8217;s latest book tackles the life of Twain, a figure who has never left the national spotlight.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-left embed--size-small\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/fc24d30b-11e8-43a7-a77f-56716a25e8a8\/thumbnail\/620x942\/4c79a19e709c6cceb918918a21d16dd1\/mark-twain-cover-penguin-press-full.jpg#\" alt=\"mark-twain-cover-penguin-press-full.jpg \" height=\"942\" width=\"620\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/fc24d30b-11e8-43a7-a77f-56716a25e8a8\/thumbnail\/620x942\/4c79a19e709c6cceb918918a21d16dd1\/mark-twain-cover-penguin-press-full.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets2.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/fc24d30b-11e8-43a7-a77f-56716a25e8a8\/thumbnail\/1240x1884\/33f98432983cc325795397c9a76d1a90\/mark-twain-cover-penguin-press-full.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                Penguin Press<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Twain once wrote, &#8220;Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man \u2013 the biography of the man himself cannot be written.&#8221; &#8220;That line was in my head every single day that I worked on this book,&#8221; Chernow laughed. &#8220;I kind of had this image of Mark Twain coming back to life and saying, &#8216;I told you so.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chernow traces Twain&#8217;s sardonic humor to the pain in which it was rooted. Although he enjoyed boyhood adventures that would inspire &#8220;Tom Sawyer,&#8221; his father was a failure in business.\u00a0 The fear of poverty, and an anxious pursuit of wealth, would dominate Twain&#8217;s adult life. <\/p>\n<p>In Hartford, Connecticut, site of Twain&#8217;s home, Chernow described the sprawling mansion that he had built: &#8220;I see his personality. All the angles and porches and turrets, it&#8217;s like all of the different sides of his personality. And he always loved conspicuousness, and this is probably the most conspicuous house in the city.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I asked, &#8220;Was Mark Twain happy here?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Not just happy here, it was far and away the happiest 17 years of his life,&#8221; Chernow said. &#8220;It was this idyllic period. He had this large expensive house. He had a rich and gorgeous wife. He had three beautiful and smart daughters. It was really a charmed life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<figure class=\"embed embed--type-image is-image embed--float-none embed--size-large\">\n<p>      <span class=\"img embed__content\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/fd36dc47-ddca-4d75-abf3-f71bcc2cedf3\/thumbnail\/620x349\/bb4b8fc7672d3314c31a9ff9833245bf\/at-mark-twain-house-in-hartford-ct.jpg#\" alt=\"at-mark-twain-house-in-hartford-ct.jpg \" height=\"349\" width=\"620\" class=\" lazyload\" srcset=\"https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/fd36dc47-ddca-4d75-abf3-f71bcc2cedf3\/thumbnail\/620x349\/bb4b8fc7672d3314c31a9ff9833245bf\/at-mark-twain-house-in-hartford-ct.jpg 1x, https:\/\/assets3.cbsnewsstatic.com\/hub\/i\/r\/2025\/07\/05\/fd36dc47-ddca-4d75-abf3-f71bcc2cedf3\/thumbnail\/1240x698\/73019d7ec43952db9f4b75050ce4ea00\/at-mark-twain-house-in-hartford-ct.jpg 2x\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/span><figcaption class=\"embed__caption-container\">\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__caption\">Biographer Ron Chernow with Robert Costa at the Mark Twain House &amp; Museum in Hartford, Conn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>                  <span class=\"embed__credit\"><\/p>\n<p>                CBS News<\/p>\n<p>                          <\/span><br \/>\n              <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Although Twain became wealthy as a writer and public speaker, he poured his fortune \u2013 and his wife&#8217;s \u2013 into ill-fated investments. The most notorious was the Paige Compositor, a typesetting machine that Twain was sure would make him millions.<\/p>\n<p>The themes that run through Twain&#8217;s life and his work \u2013 politics, corruption, money, class, race, get-rich-quick themes \u2013 all seem quite relevant to America today. Chernow said, &#8220;It&#8217;s a great American story, and I think that there&#8217;s so many things that he said \u2013 for instance, about politics \u2013 that really resonate today. One line that used to drive him crazy was, &#8216;My country right or wrong.&#8217; You know, he said that we should support our country always, and our government when it deserves it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chernow believes President Trump would be a familiar figure to the humorist, &#8220;to the extent that one of the great stock characters in Mark Twain&#8217;s fiction is the salesman. You can see it in President Trump. You could see it in so many different figures in American life \u2013 the big talkers, the big shots.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s no small irony that Twain was nothing if not a big shot himself \u2013 a man who craved attention as much as money. But fame also emboldened Twain to speak truth to power, most enduringly through his masterpiece, &#8220;Huckleberry Finn.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chernow said, &#8220;One of the things that I argued in my book was that there was no White author in the late 19th century who engaged more fully, and I think more affectionately, with the Black community than Twain. Now, I had to point out early on, if you read letters that he wrote when he was a teenager, they&#8217;re full of crude, racist remarks \u2013 and not only about Blacks, seems like just about everybody.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>By 1884, Twain had published &#8220;Huck Finn,&#8221; which, said Chernow, &#8220;whatever its imperfections, is still, I think, the great anti-slavery novel in the language.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For Chernow, Mark Twain is still a vital presence in American life. His words continue to make us think, and almost certainly laugh. <\/p>\n<p>Asked why his works have endured when so many other great authors&#8217; books are languishing, Chernow replied, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s a very, very good question. He likened a fine literature to a wine, and he said, &#8216;My writing is water, but everyone drinks water.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And they are still drinking it (and still reading Twain).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<br \/>READ AN EXCERPT: <span class=\"link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/book-excerpt-mark-twain-by-ron-chernow\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">&#8220;Mark Twain&#8221; by Ron Chernow<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<br \/>For more info:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.penguinrandomhouse.com\/books\/599856\/mark-twain-by-ron-chernow\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">&#8220;Mark Twain&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0by Ron Chernow (Penguin Press), in Hardcover, eBook and Audio formats, available via\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Mark-Twain-Ron-Chernow\/dp\/0525561722?tag=cbs-news-20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Amazon<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.barnesandnoble.com\/w\/mark-twain-ron-chernow\/1146291978\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Barnes &amp; Noble<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/bookshop.org\/p\/books\/mark-twain-ron-chernow\/21810476\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Bookshop.org<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/visithannibal.com\/explore\/mark-twain-boyhood-home\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Twain Boyhood Home &amp; Museum<\/a>, Hannibal, Mo.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/marktwainhouse.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Twain House &amp; Museum<\/a>, Hartford, Conn.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/marktwainriverboat.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Twain Riverboat<\/a>, Hannibal, Mo.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/visithannibal.com\/events\/twain-on-main-festival-2\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Twain on Main Festival<\/a>. Hannibal, Mo.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lib.berkeley.edu\/visit\/bancroft\/mark-twain-papers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Mark Twain Papers &amp; Project, University of California, Berkeley Library<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sixthandi.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sixth &amp; I<\/a>, Washington, D.C.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<br \/>Story produced by Ed Forgotson. Editor: Carol Ross. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<br \/>See also: <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- data-recirc-source=\"chartbeat\" --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"component list recirculation component--type-recirculation component--type-recirculation-collection\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>    <!-- tags --><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author\">\n      <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/team\/robert-costa\/\" class=\"content-author__name\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">Robert  Costa<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"content-author__bio\">\n<div class=\"content-author__full-information\">\n<p class=\"content-author__text\">Robert Costa is a national correspondent for &#8220;CBS News Sunday Morning&#8221; and chief Washington analyst for CBS News.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/ron-chernow-on-the-life-of-mark-twain\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Mississippi Valley is &#8220;as tranquil and reposeful as dreamland, and has nothing this-worldly about it \u2026 nothing to hang<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7774],"class_list":["post-36737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-stories","tag-mark-twain"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ron Chernow on the life of Mark Twain - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer&amp;#039;s latest book delves into the life, complexities and sardonic humor of a man who remains a vital presence in American culture.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/ron-chernow-on-the-life-of-mark-twain\/\" 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