Chasing the last laugh : Mark Twain's raucous and redemptive round-the-world comedy tour / Richard Zacks.
| Author/creator | Zacks, Richard author. |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication | New York : Doubleday, [2016] |
| Description | x, 450 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Joys of self-publishing -- Printing mogul -- Safe eggs and broken eggs -- The trials of Paige and Joan of Arc -- An odd homecoming -- Not enough time to curse -- Twain grilled, Livy burnt -- America: dry run for the world -- Traveling with a volcano -- Separation -- At sea -- Greetings, mate -- Cashing in on the platypus -- Maoriland -- Birthdays and longing -- To India -- Bombay! -- Eyes wide -- Rails, riches and elephants -- Holy cities -- The heart of the British Raj -- Himalayan joy ride -- Mutiny on the Ganges -- Feverish in the Pink City -- Dreams at sea -- Africa -- Reuniting the family -- Alone in London -- Helen Keller -- A London revival -- Charitable schemes -- Joys of payback -- Back in the game -- Homecoming. |
| Abstract | "From Richard Zacks, bestselling author of The Pirate Hunter and Island of Vice, a rich and lively account of Mark Twain's late-life adventures abroad. In 1895, at age sixty, Mark Twain was dead broke and miserable--his recent novels had been critical and commercial failures, and he was bankrupted by his inexplicable decision to run a publishing company. His wife made him promise to pay every debt back in full, so Twain embarked on an around-the-world comedy lecture tour that would take him from the dusty small towns of the American West to the faraway lands of India, South Africa, Australia, and beyond. Richard Zacks' rich and entertaining narrative provides a portrait of Twain as a complicated, vibrant individual, and showcases the biting wit and skeptical observation that made him one of the greatest of all American writers. Twain remained abroad for five years, a time of struggle and wild experiences -- and ultimately redemption, as he rediscovered his voice as a writer and humorist, and returned, wiser and celebrated. As he said in his famous reply to an article about his demise, "the report of my death is an exaggeration." Weaving together a trove of sources, including newspaper accounts, correspondence, and unpublished material from Berkeley's ongoing Twain Project, Zacks chronicles a chapter of Twain's life as complex as the author himself, full of foolishness and bad choices, but also humor, self-discovery, and triumph"-- Provided by publisher. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Genre/form | Biography. |
| Genre/form | Biographies. |
| LCCN | 2015036843 |
| ISBN | 9780385536448 hardcover |
| ISBN | 0385536445 hardcover |