THE BOHEMIANS Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature

Few audiobooks offer a better window on the evolution of a unique American literature than this fine portrayal of the San Francisco literary scene that came together in the 1860s. Bret Harte was its pioneering father, and poets Ina Coolbrith and Charles Warren Stoddard its most representative personalities. But the defining figure is Mark Twain, whose growth as an artist was itself the emergence of a distinctive American style. Narrator Jim Frangione delivers this saga of lofty success and abject failure with empathy and vigor. His excellent performance is a listening--and learning--experience of the highest order, rich in its sense of place and time. D.A.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2021]