The Statesman and the Storyteller

“What a riveting book. What a wonderful story . . . . . . Mark Zwonitzer gives us Clemens himself, in full, deep, dark color. John Hay is enjoying a new round of political influence now as the Republican Party revives his memory to try to inspire a post–Bush-Cheney conservative foreign policy renaissance. But here is Hay in life and in the politics of his time, seen as clearly as we have ever seen him: challenged and brilliant and human. Zwonitzer has discovered that Clemens and Hay’s intersection as friends and conflicted patriots in complicated times is one of the great personal stories of American political history.” —Rachel Maddow, author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power “A wonderfully rich story of two dramatically different but compellingly interesting men whose friendship and achievements encompassed America’s rise to wealth and world power at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Mark Zwonitzer’s sharp eye for detail, his ability to turn history and biography into story, and his ability to bring not only the protagonists but the people around them into vivid drama make this a deeply insightful and satisfying book.” —Michael Korda, author of Clouds of Glory “Set at the dawn of the United States’ rise to world power, this well-told and moving story about the unexpected relationship of an artist and a political leader should help readers understand how we came to be what we are today.” —Bob Kerrey, former U.S. senator, author of When I Was a Young Man “A compelling narrative, opening rare insight into an exceptional friendship played out in the shadow of epoch-making geopolitics . . . Fascinated readers will marvel at how mutual regard sustained the tie between Hays and Twain.” —Booklist, starred review