Skip to main content
Books, videos, and music - all free from your public library!
LoginSign Up

Footer

Hoopla logo, Go to homepage
  • For Patrons
  • For Libraries (opens in new window)
  • For Vendors (opens in new window)
  • Facebook (opens in new window)
  • X (opens in new window)
  • Instagram (opens in new window)
  • YouTube (opens in new window)
  • TikTok (opens in new window)
  • LinkedIn (opens in new window)

Our Company

  • Our Story
  • Get Hoopla for your Library (opens in new window)
  • Get your content on hoopla (opens in new window)
  • Join our team (opens in new window)
  • Accessibility Statement

Our Content

  • Audiobooks
  • Ebooks
  • Movies
  • Television
  • Comics
  • BingePasses
  • Music
  • The Loop Blog

Help

  • Help Center
  • Submit Feedback
  • Facebook (opens in new window)
  • X (opens in new window)
  • Instagram (opens in new window)
  • YouTube (opens in new window)
  • TikTok (opens in new window)
  • LinkedIn (opens in new window)
  • Download on the App Store (opens in new window)
  • Get it on Google Play (opens in new window)
  • Available at Amazon Appstore (opens in new window)
© 2026 Midwest Tape, LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Use
  • Hoopla logo
    Powered by Hoopla
  • Browse
  • My Hoopla
  • Log In
  1. Navigate Home
  3. Television

  4. Mark Twain - A Film by Ken Burns

TELEVISION

Mark Twain - A Film by Ken Burns

Series: Ken Burns
4.6
(364)
sign up
Episodes
2
Rating
TVPG
Year
2002
Language
English
Publisher
PBS

About

Considered the funniest man of his time, Mark Twain was a critic of human nature who used his humor to attack hypocrisy, greed, and racism. As America's best-loved author, he created some of its most memorable characters and quoted sayings. Director Ken Burns digs beneath the legend to discover the true Twain and reveals his extraordinary life, filled with adventure and literary pursuit, incredible success and defeat, comedy, and tragedy.

Related Subjects

  • Biography

Episodes

1. 01-Part 1

2h

sign up
Ken Burns takes viewers on a journey through Sam Clemens' early days along the Mississippi River, to the small river town of Hannibal, Missouri. Clemens grows up, stumbling from adventure to adventure until he begins to evolve into Mark Twain, the humorist and writer who would revolutionize the way Americans viewed themselves and their language. The episode ends with the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, a novel that has been banned in hundreds of libraries and schools across the country ever since.

2. 02-Part 2

2h

sign up
Ken Burns explores the other side of the writer - an American icon who, through tragedy and bad financial decisions, falls hard with failure. In contrast to the wildly successful Twain, Clemens is an inept businessman who squanders his fortunes on pipe dream patents and bad investments. Clemens turns to the lecture circuit and tours extensively, leaving behind his beloved Hartford home and, often, his family, to pay off his creditors.

Extended Details

  • SeriesKen Burns
  • Closed CaptionsEnglish

Artists

Ken BurnsDirector
Florentine FilmsProducer

Similar Artists

  • Alice Gray

  • Eleanor Roosevelt

  • Lynn Sherr

  • Mark Woods

  • Neil Kagan