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Mark Twain’s Library of Humor Audiobook
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(3.06) - 32 listener ratings
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Master wit Mark Twain selected these twenty-seven stories himself by fifteen of his favorite nineteenth century authors. The order follows that which Twain placed them in in the original anthology, published in 1888. He indulged his comic fancy rather than making a textbook in which all themes or authors are placed together, saying that "This way, you will have to peruse the whole thing before discovering that one of your favorites is not included." However, it is no joke that these are the authors represented: Charles Dudley Warner, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Eugene Field, William D. Howells, James M. Bailey, Joel Chandler Harris, Katherine Kent Child Walker, Robert J. Burdette, Sam Davis, Artemus Ward, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Francis Lee Pratt, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Frederick W. Cozzens, and Twain himself.
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"I am re-reading this book. I especially like The War Prayer, which was pointed out to me by a friend. "
— Patrick (5 out of 5 stars)
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“Discover the array of comic genius that kept Mark Twain on his toes and inspired him to lead the way for comic writers across the country in his day.”
— Barnes & Noble, editorial review -
“The director and his cast strive for clarity and comprehension. They splash through the shallows of these pieces with broad strokes…Uniformly energetic and expressive.”
— AudioFile
Mark Twain’s Library of Humor Listener Reviews
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" This particular volume doesn't contain some of my favorite stories of Twain's, which can be found in a complete volume of his short stories. They are most excellent. "
— Annie, 8/9/2007
About the Authors
Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), was born in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal on the west bank of the Mississippi River. He attended school briefly and then at age thirteen became a full-time apprentice to a local printer. When his older brother Orion established the Hannibal Journal, Samuel became a compositor for that paper and then, for a time, an itinerant printer. With a commission to write comic travel letters, he traveled down the Mississippi. Smitten with the riverboat life, he signed on as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot. After 1859, he became a licensed pilot, but two years later the Civil War put an end to the steam-boat traffic.
In 1861, he and his brother traveled to the Nevada Territory where Samuel became a writer for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and there, on February 3, 1863, he signed a humorous account with the pseudonym Mark Twain. The name was a river man’s term for water “two fathoms deep” and thus just barely safe for navigation.
In 1870 Twain married and moved with his wife to Hartford, Connecticut. He became a highly successful lecturer in the United States and England, and he continued to write.
Xe Sands has more than a decade of experience bringing stories to life through narration, performance, and visual art, including recordings of the Nightwalkers series from Jaquelyn Frank. She has received several honors, including AudioFile Earphones Awards and a coveted Audie Award, and she was named Favorite Debut Romance Narrator of 2011 in the Romance Audiobooks poll.