PBS · Ended

Mark Twain

2002

Last aired: S1 E4, Part 4 · 2002-01-15

In his time, Mark Twain was considered the funniest man on earth. Yet he was also an unflinching critic of human nature, using his humor to attack hypocrisy, greed and racism. In this series, Ken Burns has created an illuminating portrait of the man who is also one of the greatest writers in American history. Mark Twain tells the story of the writer's extraordinary life – full of rollicking adventure, stupendous success and crushing defeat, hilarious comedy and almost unbearable tragedy. By the end, the film helps us to see how Twain could claim with some justification, "I am not an American, I am the American."

Cast

Keith David Narrator

Season 1

E1 Part 1 2002-01-14 · 60 min Samuel Langhorne Clemens rose from a hardscrabble boyhood in the backwoods of Missouri to become, as Mark Twain, America's best known and best-loved author.

E2 Part 2 2002-01-14 · 60 min Ken Burns takes a journey along the Mississippi River to the little town of Hannibal, MO, where Samuel Clemens grew up. As he moved from adventure to adventure, Clemens evolved into Mark Twain, the humorist and writer who changed the way Americans saw themselves and their language. This episode pauses with the publication of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

E3 Part 3 2002-01-15 · 60 min Explore the other side of Twain, the man—an American icon who falls hard through tragedy and bad financial decisions. An inept businessman who squanders his fortune on pipe-dream patents and bad investments, Twain turns to the lecture circuit and tours extensively, leaving behind his beloved Hartford home to pay off his creditors.

E4 Part 4 2002-01-15 · 60 min The conclusion of Mark Twain's biography.

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