Ordeal of Mark Twain
Author: first_name:  Van Wyck
last_name: Brooks
Language: English
Year: 1920

This book, published in 1920, analyzes the literary progression of Samuel Clemens and his shortcomings (which are debatable). Brooks attributes Clemens' increasing sense of pessimism to the repression of his creative spirit due largely to his mother and his wife. (Summary by Wikipedia and Lucretia B)