Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain

Rating:
Summary: Sam Clemens Through the Eyes of Ron Powers-Dangerous Water
Review: Dangerous Water A Biography by Sam Powers

Dangerous Waters by Ron Powers is a Biography of the boy who became Mark Twain. The book is an insight into the genealogy of Samuel Clemens. Powers tells how the Family finally came to settle in Hannibal, Missouri after living in various other places in the growing United States. The book also goes into great detail about some of the origins of the style with which Clemens wrote. There is no doubt that the time that young Clemens spent in the slave quarters at his fathers home shaped him in many ways. Hearing slave spirituals such as "Better Day A-Comin" and "You Gonna Reap Just What You Sow" played a big part in shaping the man who would write about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. Powers goes on to write about how Clemens managed to go from being one of the literary elite in the 1800s to bankruptcy at the turn of the century. He tells of Clemens' life in a European society where he was welcomed but never really was at home. The book also covers Clemens' rise out of bankruptcy by traveling the world and giving lectured in places like Ceylon and South Africa and many other far off places that most Americans could only dream about. Even through this, the low point in his life, Clemens managed to catch the attention of the American society with a sort of neo-pioneer commitment to claw his way back to the life he had grown to love in his homeland. Overall I found the descriptions of the life of Samuel Clemens to be very exciting and a joy to learn. The vividness with which Powers tells the stories of Clemens' life as a young man in Hannibal made the tales interesting and captivating. However in some parts of the book, I found Powers to be somewhat wordy and hard to follow. At times, the author is crystal clear and I could actually imagine what the events he was describing must have been like to Clemens. On the other hand, some parts of the book felt extremely tedious to read. Ron Powers is a journalist, novelist and non fiction writer. Powers is the author of eight books and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He has been a columnist for The Chicago Sun Times and GQ magazine. He has been published in magazines such as the New York Times Book Review and Conde Nast Traveler. Powers, Like Clemens grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. I would have to say that this fact alone gives him a unique perspective on what it must have been like growing up to become Mark Twain. Powers is not the only author to study the life of Samuel Clemens and Mark Twain. There are many other authors who have taken on the task of writing about one of America's first super stars. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, A Biography by Justin Kaplan and Inventing Mark Twain, The Lives of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Andrew Hoffman are among the most popular. I think this book is best suited for college students or adults who enjoyed reading any of Twain's work and ever found themselves wondering where Twain got his ideas for his early writings such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Dangerous Waters will also interest anyone who wants to learn more about authors of the American Renaissance. This book offers a great insight into the development of Sam Clemens as a writer. So I believe anyone who has ever heard the name Mark Twain will find this book interesting.

Rating:
Summary: Sam Clemens Through the Eyes of Ron Powers-Dangerous Water
Review: Dangerous Water A Biography by Sam Powers

Dangerous Waters by Ron Powers is a Biography of the boy who became Mark Twain. The book is an insight into the genealogy of Samuel Clemens. Powers tells how the Family finally came to settle in Hannibal, Missouri after living in various other places in the growing United States. The book also goes into great detail about some of the origins of the style with which Clemens wrote. There is no doubt that the time that young Clemens spent in the slave quarters at his fathers home shaped him in many ways. Hearing slave spirituals such as "Better Day A-Comin" and "You Gonna Reap Just What You Sow" played a big part in shaping the man who would write about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Fin. Powers goes on to write about how Clemens managed to go from being one of the literary elite in the 1800s to bankruptcy at the turn of the century. He tells of Clemens' life in a European society where he was welcomed but never really was at home. The book also covers Clemens' rise out of bankruptcy by traveling the world and giving lectured in places like Ceylon and South Africa and many other far off places that most Americans could only dream about. Even through this, the low point in his life, Clemens managed to catch the attention of the American society with a sort of neo-pioneer commitment to claw his way back to the life he had grown to love in his homeland. Overall I found the descriptions of the life of Samuel Clemens to be very exciting and a joy to learn. The vividness with which Powers tells the stories of Clemens' life as a young man in Hannibal made the tales interesting and captivating. However in some parts of the book, I found Powers to be somewhat wordy and hard to follow. At times, the author is crystal clear and I could actually imagine what the events he was describing must have been like to Clemens. On the other hand, some parts of the book felt extremely tedious to read. Ron Powers is a journalist, novelist and non fiction writer. Powers is the author of eight books and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He has been a columnist for The Chicago Sun Times and GQ magazine. He has been published in magazines such as the New York Times Book Review and Conde Nast Traveler. Powers, Like Clemens grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. I would have to say that this fact alone gives him a unique perspective on what it must have been like growing up to become Mark Twain. Powers is not the only author to study the life of Samuel Clemens and Mark Twain. There are many other authors who have taken on the task of writing about one of America's first super stars. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain, A Biography by Justin Kaplan and Inventing Mark Twain, The Lives of Samuel Langhorne Clemens by Andrew Hoffman are among the most popular. I think this book is best suited for college students or adults who enjoyed reading any of Twain's work and ever found themselves wondering where Twain got his ideas for his early writings such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Dangerous Waters will also interest anyone who wants to learn more about authors of the American Renaissance. This book offers a great insight into the development of Sam Clemens as a writer. So I believe anyone who has ever heard the name Mark Twain will find this book interesting.

Rating:
Summary: A book that breathes life into a legend
Review: I do not know of a writer who parses the American cultural landscape with as much intelligence and wisdom as Ron Powers. If you care about America's soul, and how it is faring as forces of modernity encroach upon it, you simply must become acquainted with Ron Powers's writing. This journey through the boyhood days of Sam Clemens is Powers at the height of his form.

Rating:
Summary: Before there was Mark Twain there was Sam Clemens
Review: Most biographies on Sam Clemens deal with him as the writer Mark Twain, but as Hannibal native Ron Powers points out there was the boy Sam Clemens who lived in Hannibal, Missouri and that is where the stories came from. The town of Hannibal on the banks of the Mississippi had an important impact on the making of the boy who would become a writer and it takes somebody who lived in Hannibal as a boy to understand the pull of the town and the river. Ron Powers paints a portrait of the boy, his family, the town, and the river and how he became the man the world knows. This biography will be an important part of the canon of Mark Twain as was the Justin Kaplan biography and all that followed.