Scott Bradfield

Is Mark Twain’s old age best forgotten?

Gary Scharnhorst’s three-volume biography ends with the irrepressible author descending into anger, melancholy and an embarrassing obsession with prepubescent girls

Clemens with the 11-year-old Dorothy Quick, whom he met in 1907 aboard the SS Minnetonka. Shortly before her death in 1962, Quick published her memoir Enchantment: A Little Girl’s Friendship with Mark Twain. [Getty Images]

  • The Life of Mark Twain: The Final Years 1891-1910

    Gary Scharnhorst

    University of Missouri Press, pp. 712, £45

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