Al-Warraq Library does not host book files; it takes you to the copy at the original source. Public-domain status differs from country to country, so check the law where you live before downloading or republishing the book. Do you hold rights in this work? Request its removal
In the title essay, an Old Man argues with a Young Man that human beings are machines, driven entirely by temperament, training and outside influences, and…
In the title essay, an Old Man argues with a Young Man that human beings are machines, driven entirely by temperament, training and outside influences, and that every act, even the most generous, springs from the desire for one's own approval. The collection also includes 'The Death of Jean', Twain's grieving account of his youngest daughter's death on Christmas Eve 1909; 'Is Shakespeare Dead?', in which he doubts that the man from Stratford wrote the plays; and comic pieces on tobacco, the bicycle and bees.
Context and significance
Mark Twain printed 'What Is Man?' anonymously in 1906, so dark were its ideas, and this volume was published in 1917, after his death. Read his The Mysterious Stranger, and see his life.
About the author
Samuel Clemens (1835–1910) grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi, and worked as a printer's apprentice, a steamboat pilot, a silver prospector in Nevada and a newspaper reporter before he became Mark Twain. A comic story about a jumping frog made his name in 1865, and his lectures and travel books made him the most famous American writer of his time.