A t a gathering at the Library of Congress in December, 1906, Mark Twain caused a “perceptible stir” when he removed his overcoat, revealing that he was wearing a white suit. In summer months that attire would not have been remarkable, but all the guests in their wintry dark suits were stunned. Ever theatrical, Twain anticipated the response. He had just turned 71 and the image of him in white became his signature look.

The rest of the title of Mark Twain: Man in White is The Grand Adventure of His Final Years. So much has been written by and about this man that Michael Sheldon has chosen to focus on his last four years. He states that wearing white at his age was playful. “Determined not to waste his last years in a dreary shuffle toward extinction, he wanted to go out in the grand fashion of a man who had made a deep impression on the world.” An impression he certainly made, and not just with his white suit. He was already a celebrity, a major American writer (still studied in high schools and graduate degree programs.) He had made and lost a fortune and was a friend of leaders around the world. Sheldon’s research included Twain’s journals and letters, as well as biographies and reminiscences of his friends and family.

During the last years that this book covers, his story did not lack drama. He built a mansion (having lost his former one to debt,) survived a burglary, flirted with Broadway actresses, explored Bermuda, pretended that he was lost at sea, published books on heaven and Shakespeare, and was almost swindled out of everything he had.

Some of his late writings were withheld from publication until long after he died. He was not guarded in his unvarnished opinions, but he was not always angry. His life had been difficult from the beginning, but he retained his sense of humor till the end. He was never boring. He was devoted to his family, and his wife Livy. She kept a calm and comfortable home for him. After she died in 1904, he lamented her loss, missing her and her ability to “think of everything.”

They had lost a 19-month-old son to diphtheria, and their daughter Susy, said to be Twain’s favorite, to spinal miningitis. Jean, the youngest daughter, suffered from epilepsy, and Clara and her father were not very compatible.

However, Twain found joy in friendship and adventures during those final years. One of the highlights was receiving the degree of Doctor of Letters from Oxford University. He was largely selfeducated and a voracious reader, but self-conscious that he lacked a traditional diploma. “For 20 years I have been diligently trying to improve my own literature, and now, by virtue of the University of Oxford, I mean to doctor everybody else’s.”

Sheldon quotes extensively from Twain’s anecdotes and humor, and includes photographs not published previously. The book is skillfully written, and obviously no book about the adventures of Mark Twain could be less than entertaining.

Mark Twain: Man In White is available at the Mary Willis Library.