On the Road With Mark Twain in California and Nevada - Hardcover

Williams, George J.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0935174206 ISBN 13: 9780935174205

Publisher: Tree by the River Pub, 1993

About this title

From Library Journal:

Interest in Mark Twain remains constant, and this book goes a long way toward uncovering some of the lesser-known years of Twain's life--years that shaped his future as a writer. He chose his nom de plume, for example, while he was working for a Virginia City, Nevada newspaper, and the inspiration for many of his famous stories ("Roughing It," "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog") originated during his wanderings through the gold fields of both states. Journalist Williams does a masterful job of taking the reader to each site and sketching Twain's impression of it, then offering a description of what remains today. A real treat that deserves to be in every public library.
- Joseph L. Carlson, Vandenberg Air Force Base Lib., Cal.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist:

Williams promises his readers, "You and I will go bouncing down the back roads of California and Nevada into the mining camps, mountains and towns where Mark Twain lived the most adventurous years of his life." In that vein, the author recounts many little-known events in Twain's formative years as a reporter. He even contends that Samuel Clemens' pen name, Mark Twain, developed in Virginia City, Nevada, as a reference to his bar tab at Piper's saloon. Clemens, the hard-drinking reporter, would enter with a friend and call out, "Mark Twain," meaning mark two drinks on the wall behind the bar. Quotes from Twain's letters, autobiographical works, and publications, along with period photographs, slip neatly into Williams' guide. Denise Perry Donavin

About this edition

• Publisher: Tree by the River Pub
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 0935174206
• ISBN 13: 9780935174205
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 136