Dec 19, 2009
Spunkwater, Spunkwater! | Spunkwater, Spunkwater!
At a glance:
- Author: James Playsted Wood
- First Published: 1968
- Time of Work: 1835–1910
- Setting: California, Connecticut, Europe, the Mississippi River,
Missouri, Nevada, New York, and Pennsylvania
- Principal Characters: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Orion Clemens, Olivia, William Dean Howells, Albert Bigelow Paine
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: Family or family life, North America or North Americans, United States or Americans, Journalism or journalists, Traveling or travelers, Authors or writers, Marriage, Midwest, Writing, California, West, U.S., Rivers or waterways, Newspapers, Biography, Apprentices, Printing
- Locales: California, Europe, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Mississippi River, Nevada
Form and Content
In the fifteen chapters of Spunkwater, Spunkwater! A Life of
Mark Twain, James Playsted Wood provides an overview of Samuel
Langhorne Clemens’s life, focusing on the rich humanity of the
man who was to become known as Mark Twain. The book begins with a
general overview of Twain’s loves and hates, foreshadowing
Wood’s discussion of Twain’s tendency toward strong
emotions later in the book.
In a rough chronology, Wood introduces Twain’s family and
examines his childhood—especially his carefree and unrestricted
days in Hannibal, Missouri,...
[The entire page is 1414 words long]
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