Mark Twain Only once did David Foster

Only once did David Foster Wallace give a public talk on his views on life

" --Lauren Groff

the man who would become America's first

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

encountering legendary creatures and shrewd monarchs

Mark Twain Only once did David Foster"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