Many books have been written about Mark Twain; but with the exception of Paine's biography—perhaps the best biography ever written by an American—this work ["The Ordeal of Mark Twain"] by Mr. Van Wyck Brooks is the most important and the most essential. Mr. Brooks is one of our ablest critics, for he combines catholicity of taste with an almost austere sincerity. His book, like all books filled with ideas, is a challenge; it contains so much truth that it provokes and disturbs the reader, as all critical writing should do….

I say that this book contains much truth. I do not think it contains all the truth, or that it is wholly true. But it is packed with ideas….

The main idea in this book is that Mark Twain's career was a tragedy—a tragedy for himself and a tragedy for mankind. Every man who does...