Joseph Hopkins Twichell

Courtney's biography of Joseph Hopkins Twichell is both comprehensive and compulsively readable. Herein find the Rev. Twichell, a man in full: New England son, Civil War chaplain, advocate of children, and best friend of America's favorite manchild, mischievous Mark Twain. Courtney illuminates Twichell, his era, and the foundations of our own.

* author of I Know This Much Is True *

Courtney's book is well researched, illuminating, and a pleasure to read—sprightly, engaging. It is a significant biography of an overlooked but important figure. It should be of interest not only to recorders of Hartford but to Twain critics, religious studies scholars, and cultural historians.

* author of Mark Twain & Company: Six Literary Relations *

Steve Courtney's biography, Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain's Closest Friend, was praised by our panel for its meticulous research as well as its evocative storytelling, two elements that don't often mesh in the hands of a writer. He does it superbly. Though Twichell will always primarily be remembered as Mark Twain's friend, Courtney presents him as a complex, interesting and significant historical figure in his own right. As one judge pointed out, 'the thread of a friendship with the great Twain is elucidating, comical, laid bare. It rings of truthtelling which does great honor to both the famed author and the committed minister.'

* Connecticut Book Award, 2009 *

Courtney’s work on Joe Twichell fills a large void in the Twain world. The tale of the man who was Mark Twain’s friend, confidante, and confessor is long overdue. Courtney’s years as a journalist are evident in this book. Meticulously researched, it is also a joy to read because like Twain, he tells a good story.

* Executive Director, Mark Twain House & Museum *

Courtney shows that there is much more to be made of Joseph Hopkins Twichell than his relationship with Twain, and that there is a great deal of interest for readers outside the world of Twain studies. Twichell was a kind of real-life, nineteenth-century Zelig, turning up in all sorts of interesting places. His life is documented by an extraordinary collection of sources, including a wonderful diary, many scrapbooks, and an outstanding collection of letters, showing that Twichell, far from being a simple foil for Twain, was a man of independence and adventure.

* Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life, Trinity College *

If the most revealing biographies of Mark Twain had to be restricted to one shelf, Steve Courtney's new biography of Twain's best friend ought to be among them . . . . Thanks to reams of correspondence which Courtney was able to access, the inner Twain shines through in ways it fails to in much of his fiction.