Mark Twain Because there is a breaking

Because there is a breaking point

the man who would become America's first

six months later

Reprinted here for the first time is Franzen's controversial l996 investigation of the fate of the American novel in what became known as "the Harper's essay

mother and son attempt to give away her vast fortune

Mark Twain Because there is a breaking"Comprehensive, enthralling . . . Mark Twain flows like the Mississippi River, its prose propelled by Mark Twain's own exuberance." The Boston Globe "Chernow writes with such ease and clarity . . . For all its length and detail, [Mark Twain] is deeply absorbing throughout." The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winning biographer Ron Chernow illuminates the full, fascinating, and complex life of the writer long celebrated as the father of American