Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews

Mark Twain was the first true American celebrity, and for four decades the press could not get enough of him. This definitive collection gathers 258 interviews, spanning from his first authenticated interview in 1871 to his final one in 1910. Here is Twain on stage, on lecture tour, on ship, at home in Hartford and abroad in Australia, India, and South Africa. Here he is defending his books, explaining his humor, mocking his critics, and occasionally revealing the private man behind the public myth. The interviews capture the full arc of his career: the rising star of the Southwest, the lecturing sensation of the 1880s, the world traveler of the mid-1890s, and the aging sage whose birthday became a national event. Reading these pages, you hear Twain thinking aloud in real time, sometimes contradictorily, always vividly. This is primary source material for anyone who wants to understand not just Mark Twain, but the birth of American celebrity culture and the relationship between a writer and his hungry public.