Ron Chernow on His New Mark Twain Biography

The Book Review

The New York Times

Books, Arts

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2025

⏱️ 43 minutes

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Summary

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 host Gilbert Cruz how he came to write about Twain and what interested him most about his subject.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Gilbert Cruz, editor of the New York Times book review, and this is the book review podcast.
0:12.2	It's possible that you know Ron Chernow as the author of the 2004 biography Alexander Hamilton,
0:19.7	the source material for the smash Broadway musical.
0:23.9	Of course, Ron is much more than just a Hamilton man.
0:27.6	He is the Pulitzer Prize winning author of several other major biographies,
0:32.4	including Washington Alive, Grant about the President and Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant, and Titan,
0:40.0	the life of John D. Rockefeller Sr.
0:43.3	His new book, Mark Twain, looks at one of the most famous American citizens of the 19th century,
0:48.9	one of the most revered American writers of all time.
0:59.0	Thank you. revered American writers of all time. Ron, welcome back to the book review podcast.
1:01.7	It's lovely to join you, Gilbert.
1:03.2	Thank you.
1:04.4	Now, for any nonfiction writer picking the next topic can be a heavy task, but you're
1:09.5	picking someone who you're going to be married to for many years.
1:12.6	So can you remember approximately or precisely, if you can, the moment when you said Mark Twain is my guy.
1:20.1	Well, it's interesting that you use the marriage analogy because whenever I address writing students about biography,
1:25.6	I say this is far and why the most important decision
1:27.9	that you will make, choice of topic. And I say that it's a lot like marriage. If you pick the right
1:32.7	person, nothing can go wrong. If you pick the wrong person, nothing can go right. Everything flows
1:38.3	out of that. I can pinpoint the moment when my Mark Twain obsession began, I was a freelance magazine writer in Philadelphia,
1:46.8	circa in 1975, and I saw a poster one night of Hal Holbrook, Mark Twain Tonight, exclamation point.
1:54.7	And I went off, I think, knowing nothing about Hal Holbrook and a little bit more about Mark Twain. And Holbrook stood up there
	...

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