Can someone please recommend at good biography of Mark Twain, real name Sam Clemens?

Question

I need something that's in print to give as a birthday present. Just seen a good documentary on tv about him.

Answer 1

Mark Twain (A Life) by Ron Powers
Pub 2006
RRP £25
Amazon £16.50

Answer 2

Mark Twain
AKA Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Born: 30-Nov-1835
Birthplace: Florida, MO
Died: 21-Apr-1910
Location of death: Redding, CT
Cause of death: Heart Failure
Remains: Buried, Elmira, NY


Gender: Male
Religion: Atheist
Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Author

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Huckleberry Finn

Father: John Clemens (storekeeper)
Mother: Jane Lampton
Wife: Olivia Langdon (m. 2-Feb-1870, d. 5-Jun-1904, four children)
Son: Langdon (b. 1870, d. 1872)
Daughter: Jean (b. 1880, d. 1909)
Daughter: Susy (b. 1872, d. 1896)
Daughter: Clara Clemens (b. 8-Jun-1874, d. 19-Nov-1962)


Phi Beta Kappa Society
Bankruptcy 1894
Coma 21-Apr-1910
Risk Factors: Depression


Rotten Library Page:
Mark Twain

Author of books:
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches (1867, short stories)
The Innocents Abroad (1869, novel)
Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography (1871, memoir)
Roughing It (1872, novel)
The Gilded Age (1873, novel, with Charles Dudley Warner)
Mark Twain's Sketches: New and Old (1875, short stories)
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876, novel)
A True Story (1877, novel)
Punch, Brothers, Punch! (1880, novel)
The Prince and the Pauper (1882, novel)
The Stolen White Elephant (1882, novel)
Life on the Mississippi (1883, novel)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885, novel)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889, novel)
The American Claimant (1892, novel)
Merry Tales (1892, short stories)
The One-Million Pound Bank-Note (1893, novel)
Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894, novella)
The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894, novel)
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896, novel)
Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer, Detective, and Other Stories (1896, short stories)
Following the Equator (1897)
How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (1897, essays)
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900, anthology)
A Double-Barrelled Detective Story (1902, novella)
My Debut as a Literary Person (1903)
A Dog's Tale (1904, short story)
Extracts from Adam's Diary (1904, short story)
King Leopold's Soliloquy (1905)
What Is Man? (1906, essay, anonymous)
The $30,000 Bequest (1906, novel)
Eve's Diary (1906, short story)
Christian Science (1907, nonfiction)
A Horse's Tale (1907)
Is Shakespeare Dead? (1909)
Extract From Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (1909)
Mark Twain's Speeches (1910, essays)
The Mysterious Stranger (1916)
What is Man? And Other Essays (1917, essays)
Mark Twain's Letters (1917, letters)
The Curious Republic of Gondour (1919)
THe Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories (1922, short stories)
Europe and Elsewhere (1923)
Mark Twain's Autobiography (1924, memoir, 2 vols.)
Mark Twain's Notebook (1935, essays)
The Washoe Giant in San Francisco (1938)
Mark Twain's Travels with Mr. Brown (1940)
Mark Twain in Eruption (1940)