‘A Life’ close to being full biography of Twain

Like the Mississippi River, which flows through many of his best works, Mark Twain was a mighty force cutting across the American landscape.

He cut such an imposing literary figure, that, more than 95 years after his death, we still don’t have the definitive, dependable and delightful one-volume biography of this endlessly fascinating writer.

It hasn’t been for lack of trying. Three major biographies have rolled off the presses since 1997, in addition to Ken Burns’ two-part PBS documentary and its fine pictorial companion book authored by Dayton Duncan and Geoffrey C. Ward.

But Twain is so towering a literary topic, the person seeking a complete portrait of him faces an entire shelf of books.

Enter Ron Powers with “Mark Twain: A Life,” a weighty and witty biography that comes as close as any to providing the essential biography.

Powers checks in with the ideal resume for the job. First, he was born in Hannibal, the small Missouri town where Twain grew up. Second, he is a ferociously talented writer with a Pulitzer Prize and 11 books to his credit.

Third, he already has written an acclaimed biography of Twain, “Dangerous Water,” which examined the boyhood years. Fourth, he was a key contributor to Burns’ documentary. And fifth, he has a sense of humor.

So, yes, “Mark Twain: A Life” is as delightful as it is dependable. Powers has a penchant for puns and for playful play-on-words, and, happily, he doesn’t try to stifle style while providing plenty of substance and splendidly evocative historical context.

Powers even uses rock terms to describe this distinctly American writer’s assault on Old Europe standards. The audacious Twain rolled over conventions, Powers tells us, “busting up the stage a little, knocking over some amps” as he declared: “Roll over Lord Byron, and tell Jane Austen the news.”

That’s the kind of turn of phrase Twain would admire. As he turns loose the fun and facts, Powers makes Twain come alive as a three-dimensional, deeply flawed, immensely gifted and wonderfully intriguing writer.

The iconic figure of Mark Twain, popularized by actor Hal Holbrook’s more than 50 years of one-man show performances, is that of a grandfatherly fellow with white hair, white mustache and a white suit, enveloped in a cloud of white cigar smoke.

Powers knocks the easy assumptions off this image, yet he never overreaches by engaging in speculation or psychological musings that can’t be supported. His book is dependable, relying on the right resources and advisers to get the facts straight.

OK, so this biography is dependable and delightful. But is it definitive?

Here, frustratingly enough, is where the book comes up short – about 100 pages too short, by my reckoning. It pretty much ends in June 1904 with the death of Twain’s beloved wife, Livy. The remaining six years of his life are covered in a final chapter that runs all of 10 pages.

Twain might not have written much of consequence in those sad last years. Still, make no mistake, those were very dramatic, tragic and even heroic years.

The frustration is that Powers is so close. A little ways more, and this would be the definitive one-volume biography to be recommended to neophytes and aficionados alike.

That is not, however, the book here. Still, “Mark Twain” vibrates with the force of its subject.