Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years

This well researched book provides an affectionate look at our most beloved humorist in the last years of his remarkable life. Mark Twain's sometimes troubled relationships with family and close associates, his foibles and self-love are leisurely explored on a background of an American society that seems so different but often not so different from ours, 100 years later, and Mark Twain usually comes out on the side of the angels and good sense. The best of the book remains the skepticism and wit of Mark Twain himself, a man of humble beginnings, a self-made man who had "roughed it", but in his last years donned a white suit and, a little like a chaste Hugh Heffner, became the angel of an Aquarium of young women called Angelfish whom he loved and who loved him. At the very end the author touchingly elevates Mark Twain to visionary status when Twain predicted, almost to the day, the return of Halley's comet as a herald of his death--as it had, 75 years earlier, of his birth.

The test for any biographer of Mark Twain is whether or not the author has been able to bring the magnificent life and wit and sorrow and wisdom of Twain to life. Michael Shelden has done this and more. I can smell nothing but Twain's cigar as I brush away the ashes. Shelden tells a wonderful story of a lunch between Twain and George Bernard Shaw. After the lunch reporters questioned Shaw about his take on Twain. Even though they had just recently met Shaw answered that he felt he and Twain had known each other all their lives because of Twain's "complete gift of intimacy." Michael Shelden's pen has a similar gift.

Without the burden of explaining Twain's early years on the river and the immortal characters of Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, the biography begins with the donning of his infamous white suit and details the adventures of what turns out to be the last 4 years of his life. Were any of us to know how much time we had left, if nothing else, the biography serves as an example of how to live fully to the very end. We know Twain was a character but to know that much of his persona he invented was much like going behind the curtain in the 'Wizard of Oz'. Shelden is astute in every detail and weaves the facts into such a tale as to make you forget this is non-fiction. Entertaining, yes! Poignant, yes! You won't want to miss the ending, so ironic you couldn't make this stuff up. And yet, when you ponder it for a while, it was so Mark Twain. Kudos to the author for capturing the bigger than life reality that surrounded this figure the likes of which we may never see again. The pictures are worth the price of the book but the story is something you will be discussing with fellow readers for a long time.

Okay, I of course realize that Twain died nearly a hundred years ago, but Shelden's biography is so engaging that I seem to have lived the last few days with Twain. I could not put the book down, and could not stop sharing details I'd read with friends and coworkers. Thank you, Michael Shelden for sharing Twain's last years so vividly.

I'm the type of reader who loves a good story. I read fiction 90% of the time. I often find biographies to fall short of my desire to get engrossed in the lives of the characters. In order to cover all the important points of the subject's life, the author has to resort to summarizing. Not in this book! Michael Shelden has written a truly good story - and the great thing about his book is that it's a well-researched story about a fascinating character in American history which reads almost like a novel. I don't think I've ever said "I couldn't put it down" when I've attempted to read the best-selling biographies on the market. While reading this fabulous book, I ignored all sorts of responsibilities to finish it. Mark Twain was quite a character and Mr. Shelden does an excellent job telling the story of the last few years of his life.