Alan Pell Crawford is the author of Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman-and the First Great Scandal of Eighteenth-Century America and a regular book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal.
Mark Twain's lifetime spans America's era of greatest economic growth. And Twain was an active, even giddy, participant in all the great booms and busts of his time, launching himself into one harebrained get-rich-quick scheme after another. But far from ...[SEE MORE]