Sketches New and Old
Gathered by Twain himself in 1875, this collection ranges across the humorous sketches, tall tales, and comic essays that first made his name. It opens with the story that launched his career, the jumping frog of Calaveras County, and moves through spoofs, ghost stories, mock morality tales, and satirical jabs at politicians, journalists, and his own younger self. The pieces are uneven by design, some slight, some sharp, but all carry the drawling voice and deadpan timing that readers loved. Taken together they show the young Mark Twain testing the comic instrument he would later turn to greater ends. Free to download as a PDF or EPUB.
About the Author
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal on the banks of the Mississippi. Most of his fiction would later draw on that childhood, sometimes directly. He worked as a printer’s apprentice, then…
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