The American Claimant And Other Stories »

Riverboat pilot, journalist, failed businessman (several times over): Samuel Clemens -- the man behind the figure of Mark Twain -- led many lives. But it was in his novels and short stories that he created a voice and an outlook on life that will be forever identified with the American character.

THE AMERICAN CLAIMANT is a less-known, but brilliantly satirical novel, which ranks behind THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN and PUDDIN'HEAD WILSON, but is still of major interest, as anything by Mark Twain does. Among the "Merry Tales" is a searing dissection of the follies and illusions of war, "A Private History of a Campaign That Failed."