Ron Chernow on His New Mark Twain Biography
The Book Review16 Mai 2025

Ron Chernow on His New Mark Twain Biography

The biographer Ron Chernow has written about the Rockefellers and the Morgans. His book about George Washington won a Pulitzer Prize. His book about Alexander Hamilton was adapted into a hit Broadway musical. Now, in “Mark Twain,” Chernow turns to the life of the author and humorist who became one of the 19th century’s biggest celebrities and, along the way, did much to reshape American literature in his own image.

On this week’s episode of the podcast, Chernow tells the host Gilbert Cruz how he came to write about Twain and what interested him most about his subject.

“The thing that triggered this Mark Twain mania in me was more Mark Twain the platform artist, Mark Twain the political pundit, Mark Twain the original celebrity, even more than Mark Twain the novelist or short story writer,” Chernow says. But at the same time, “I felt that he was very seminal in terms of bringing, to American literature, really bringing the heartland alive — writing about ordinary people in the vernacular and taking this wild throbbing kind of madcap culture, of America’s small towns in rural areas, and really introducing that into fiction.”

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episoder(585)

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Hamnet'

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'Hamnet'

History has not graced us with many details about Shakespeare as a person, but we do know that he and his wife had three children, including a son named Hamnet who died at the age of 11 in 1596, four ...

28 Nov 20251h 2min

Welcome to Literary Award Season

Welcome to Literary Award Season

Literature isn’t a horse race. Taste is subjective, and artistic value can’t be measured in terms of “winners" and “losers.”That doesn’t mean it’s not fun to try.The book world’s awards season officia...

22 Nov 202546min

Nicholas Boggs on Writing a James Baldwin Biography

Nicholas Boggs on Writing a James Baldwin Biography

Nicholas Boggs’s “Baldwin: A Love Story,” is many things at once. It’s a comprehensive biography of James Baldwin. It’s a nimble excavation of Baldwin’s work, filled with astute literary analysis of h...

14 Nov 202536min

The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 Years Later

The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald, 50 Years Later

On Nov. 10, 1975, during a calamitous storm, the Edmund Fitzgerald sunk below the waves of Lake Superior. All 29 men aboard went down with the vessel. With no survivors and no eyewitnesses, there’s al...

7 Nov 202539min

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter'

Book Club: Let's Talk About 'The Buffalo Hunter Hunter'

“The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,” by Stephen Graham Jones, is two things at once: a searching historical novel that examines America’s past sins and also a gory horror thriller.The book opens in 2012, when...

31 Okt 202545min

Joe Hill's Scary Book Recs and Victor LaValle on "The Haunting of Hill House" (Rerun)

Joe Hill's Scary Book Recs and Victor LaValle on "The Haunting of Hill House" (Rerun)

May October never end! As Halloween approaches, we present you with two conversations from years past with great horror authors. Joe Hill, whose latest, "King Sorrow," is out now, recommends several g...

24 Okt 202547min

Stephen King Isn't Always Scary (with Sean Fennessey)

Stephen King Isn't Always Scary (with Sean Fennessey)

It's October, which means it's time for scary books and scary movies. There's one person who is well known for both: Stephen King. Since his first novel, "Carrie," was published in 1974 and adapted in...

17 Okt 202553min

Brandon Taylor On His New Novel, 'Minor Black Figures'

Brandon Taylor On His New Novel, 'Minor Black Figures'

The novelist Brandon Taylor has been a force to reckon with right from the start: His debut, “Real Life,” was a finalist for the Booker Prize in 2020, and he quickly followed that up with two other bo...

10 Okt 202540min

Populært innen Fritid

rss-spartsklubben
lydartikler-fra-aftenposten
mil-etter-mil-en-podcast-om-bil
interiorradet
nerdelandslaget
livet-pa-veien-med-jan-erik-larssen
jakt-og-fiskepodden
jegerpodden
rss-jegerpodden
level-backup
rss-avskiltet
0-100-med-broom-mats-og-remi
rss-gatebilpodden
fjellsportpodden
klokkepodden
hagespiren-podcast
rss-jeg-fikser-vin
strikkepodden
rss-var-forste-kaffe
villmarksliv