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Mark Twain (born Samuel Clements), a former printer's apprentice, journalist, steamboat pilot, lapsed Confederate soldier and miner, remains to this day one of the most enduring and beloved of America's great writers. Beyond his works themselves, the details of Mark Twain's life - his dry sense of humour, his penchant for the absurd, his investments, and his rejection of racism - all contribute to his stature as an American icon. Combining cultural criticism with historical scholarship, A Historical Guide to Mark Twain addresses a wide range of topics relevant to Mark Twain's work, including religion, commerce, race, gender, social class, and imperialism. This volume also contains and introduction, a brief biography, a bibliographic essay, and an illustrated chronology of the author's life and times.