Author Talk: Mark Twain as a Social Satirist

Gary Scharnhorst, author of The Life of Mark Twain in 3 volumes, will discuss Twain as a social satirist throughout his career, from the short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” to his indictment of imperialism at the turn into the twentieth century. Scharnhorst’s epic and authoritative biography of Samuel Clemens not only offers new insights but also corrects a number of myths about America’s greatest writer. It has been hailed by Kirkus as “An authoritative portrait of the iconic and iconoclastic author” and by Publishers Weekly as “a scholarly biography that will undoubtedly be considered definitive.”

This program is cosponsored by the State Historical Society of Missouri and the University of Missouri Press.