Mark Twain, 1907 Courtesy The Mark Twain House, Hartford

Ken Burns Does It Again with Mark Twain, Airing on WXXI-TV January 14, 15
Twain Considered 'Funniest Man on Earth'

"He was considered the funniest man on Earth - a brilliant performer on the lecture circuit who could entertain almost any audience - and a spectacularly inept businessman whose countless schemes to get rich quick threatened again and again to bring him to ruin." These words, spoken at the beginning of Mark Twain, Ken Burns' two-part, four-hour documentary airing on WXXI-TV 21 (cable 11) at 8 p.m. on Monday and Tuesday, January 14 and 15, paint a portrait of the man born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but known to the world as Mark Twain. (See attached for information about Mark Twain Live!, coming to Rochester in January.)

Keith David narrates this tale of "a printer's apprentice and a riverboat pilot, a prospector who never struck gold and a Confederate soldier who never fought a battle," yet whose brilliant work remains a unique and influential part of the American literary landscape.

It is a story of humble beginnings, a meteoric rise to fame and the burden and tragedy of personal hardships endured. Through compelling interviews with Arthur Miller, William Styron, Hal Holbrook and others, and more than 600 still photographs gathered from more than 100 different archives, Ken Burns' Mark Twain uncovers the incredible story of America's great storyteller.

Twain's story is really that of two men: Sam Clemens, a devoted family man who lost his brother, wife, son and two daughters to tragedies, and the provider who had to tour the lecture circuit to make enough money to pull himself out of debt after bad investments left him virtually penniless; and Mark Twain, the astonishingly successful writer who became the enduring voice of a nation, stirring up controversies that exist to this day, and nearly single-handedly inventing American literature.

In the first episode, Burns takes viewers on a journey through Clemens' early days along the Mississippi River, to the small river town of Hannibal, MO. There, Clemens gathered what were to become his inspirations for classic American characters like Tom Sawyer (a young Clemens), Becky Thatcher and Huckleberry Finn.

Episode one ends with the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel that writer Russell Banks calls our "Homeric epic." Mark Twain pulls apart the traumatic experience of a young boy torn between his racist upbringing and his love of the runaway slave he has befriended. Huckleberry Finn made America sit up and take notice of its racial tensions. It made people uncomfortable and angry, and it has been banned in hundreds of libraries across the country ever since.

In episode two, Burns explores the other side of the writer - the Clemens side - an American icon who, through tragedy and bad financial decisions, fell hard with failure. In contrast to the wildly successful Twain, Clemens was an inept businessman who squandered his fortunes on pipe dream patents and bad investments. Clemens turned to the lecture circuit and toured extensively, leaving behind his beloved Hartford home and, often, his family, to pay off his creditors.

Through all his years, and all his writing, Mark Twain brought readers a body of work that remains some of the most revered, controversial and provocative literature ever produced.