Is He Dead?: A Comedy in Three Acts

"This is another gold nugget in the treasure house of Mark Twain. That he could have spun out such a rollicking satire on the hypocrisy of the art world, delivered in the spirit of 'Charley's Aunt,' while his own spirit battled the ghosts of personal loss, is another beacon to the wild and surprising genius of Mark Twain. Shelley Fisher Fishkin has done it again, giving us the fruits of eye-opening, double-fathom research, pursuing nearly virgin byways of Mark Twain's literary and social life and showing us how that colorful world affected the temper of his mind. I learned things I never knew while racing through this book."—Hal Holbrook

Riverboat pilot, journalist, failed businessman (several times over): Samuel Clemens -- the man behind the figure of Mark Twain -- led many lives. But it was in his novels and short stories that he created a voice and an outlook on life that will be forever identified with the American character.