Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing

Twain, Mark; Dawidziak, Mark (editor)

ISBN 10: 0312143656 / ISBN 13: 9780312143657

Published by St. Martin's Press, 1996

About this Item

Good+ ; Good+ Jacket. 1996 St. Martin's Press. SIGNED by editor on front free endpaper, not personalized, dated 10-96. First Edition, stated. First printing. Full number line on verso. NOT Remaindered. NOT ex-library. Hardcover has blue paper-covered boards with dark blue paper-covered spine and copper spine lettering. Deckle fore edges. Black and white photographs and illustrations. Binding tight. Hinges NOT cracked. Spine ends lightly bumped. Bottom corners bumped, back corner more so. Pages clean and unmarked. 160 pages. Dust jacket has light edge and surface wear, with light wrinkling at the corners and spine ends and one indentation on the front at the spine edge with a small break in the paper: book unaffected. Carefully packed, shipped in a box.

Seller Inventory # 9805

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312143656
• ISBN 13: 9780312143657
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Good
• Signed: signed by author
• Seller catalogs:
  • Signed
  • Literature

About this title

Synopsis

When he died in 1910, Mark Twain left behind more than a legacy of timeless novels and essays. He also bequeathed a wealth of useful - and funny - opinions on style, literary habits, and the writer's role in society. Nearly a century later, Twain's thoughts still provide information and inspiration for the novelist, essayist, public speaker, or armchair aficionado of the English language.
Compiled by veteran Twain enthusiast Mark Dawidziak, Mark My Words offers tips from Twain as true today as when he wrote them. Here you'll find the famous essay "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses," as delightfully malicious as it is instructive, as well as tips for the perfect speech (you must take at least three weeks to write an impromptu speech), the perfect book for children (it must interest not only boys but any man who has ever been a boy) - even the perfect editor (it's best to edit while awake).

Review

Kind of like an I Ching for writers: You throw the book open to wherever and some good advice or insight spills forth from this greatest of American authors: The same man, after all, who said he hadn't done "a day's work in all my life. What I have done I have done because it has been play . . . " A good attitude, indeed, to bring to your word processor, quill pen or typewriter.