Chasing the Last Laugh: How Mark Twain Escaped Debt and Disgrace with a Round-the-World Comedy Tour

In the 1890s, Mark Twain came back from the dead. The famous author€s career was collapsing, his masterpieces were at risk of falling into oblivion, and he was even mistakenly reported dead. But Twain orchestrated an amazing late-in-life comeback from bankruptcy, bad reviews, and family disaster by setting out on an unprecedented international comedy tour to restore his fortunes. Richard Zacks€s Chasing the Last Laugh captures some of Twain€s cleverest and funniest moments€"many newly discovered in unpublished notebooks and letters€"as he rode elephants in India, sorted diamonds in South Africa, and talked his way out of hell ninety minutes at a time. This untold chapter in the author€s life began with ridiculously bad choices and ended in hard-won triumph.