Nineteenth-century America and the world of Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, come to life as children journey back in time with this history- and literature-laden activity book. The comprehensive biographical information explores Mark Twain as a multi-talented man of his times, from his childhood in the rough-and-tumble West of Missouri to his many careers—steamboat pilot, printer, miner, inventor, world traveler, businessman, lecturer, newspaper reporter, and most important, author—and how these experiences influenced his writing. Twain-inspired activities include making printer’s type, building a model paddlewheel boat, unmasking a hoax, inventing new words, cooking cornpone, planning a newspaper, observing people, and writing maxims. An extensive resource section offers information on Twain’s classics, such as Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as well as a listing of recommended web sites to explore.
I was born and raised in Northern California. Not long after graduating from the University of California, with a major in the dismal science, I moved to Southern California, where I have remained ever since. At UCLA, I earned a doctorate in African history. My teaching career in that field was regrettably brief, but I later published five books on the subject. Meanwhile, I got into editing work and eventually became a reference book editor. (If you search my name in Amazon books, many of the titles that come up will be reference works I've edited.)
Around 1990, my life began to take an unexpected turn when I renewed my youthful interest in Mark Twain by vowing to read everything he wrote. To give my reading focus, I collected interesting passages from Mark Twain's work with the idea of publishing a quote collection with the reference-book publisher for whom I had written a book on Zimbabwe. I am now astonished to realize that I have published seven books on Mark Twain--with two more due out soon--and have something of a reputation of an authority in Mark Twain studies. How did that happen? I'm not sure, but it has certainly made my life more exciting.
It's now early 2012, and I am a year away from retirement from my editing job. I used the past year to finish two more Mark Twain books, and I'm now on the threshold of branching into other writing fields. I'm hoping that the best is yet to come.
