Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human Race

What a wonderful job the editors of this book did in selecting and compiling this assortment of Mark Twain's writings. The topics covered are so varied and the time period they occur in gives the reader a good idea of worldly happenings and Twain's attitude at the time of each writing. This edition contains over 60 topics written by Twain mostly with tongue in cheek. He writes articles on family life and public manners. It speaks of dress and fashion, health issues, popular foods world-wide, tips on child rearing and even safety. It's a "how to" book on dealing with salesmen and even how to fend off burglars. The material was compiled from various sources that Clements published in over a 50 year expanse of time. Many of the topics have been out of print for decades.This book reads like a modern day "Dear Helouise."Twain also gives his opinion On A Complaint About Umbrella Service, Unwanted Magazine Subscriptions, How A Proposed Street Widening Should be handled, Traveling In Close Quarters with perfect strangers. Smoking, Health and Diet, Youthful Misdemeanors, and Under A Policeman's Eye.There are over 30 illustrations in this book.In this book, Samuel Clements, under the pen name of Mark Twain, offers a guide trough the "choppy waters" of life and he adds just the right amount of his personal waves to topple the boat and all within it. No one comes out of this work unsoaked. What a delight. Lewis Grizzard comes about the closest of all authors to Mark Twain in terms of spreading joy and happiness through the watching and talking about other people who are all part of "The Damn Human Race!"The author has such a magnetic and energetic style of writing, His wit is sharp and his experience is worldly. I think anyone who would enjoy picking up a book and being thoroughly entertained for how ever long they wish to read would find this book as fun and most enjoyable.

Not to be irreverent (Mr. Clemens is about to be bemused), but this little ditty is great for a bathroom read - if you know what I mean. Each title can be read in less than ten minutes which makes this a perfect read for my occasions. It is not so much a manual of helpful hints as it is a group of humorous and insightful short stories, essays, and observations that will continually make you smile, think, and look at the human race very differently from here on out. You will never look at Ben Franklin, digestion, or children the same way again.

Here are some useful living tips, advice and observations from that quintessential American literary figure Mark Twain, real name Samuel L. Clemens. This compilation contains a delightful mix of humorous writings on the mundane and sometimes very unusual occurrences that reflected his many gifts as a writer/humorist. Many of these snippets are from some of his more famous works, while others are from personal sketches and writings not as well known. The tarantulas escape, a borrowed overcoat, a lecture to a youth group, the use of foul language, a note to a burglar, and so many other little anecdotes, observations, and etc will elicit periods of laughter from the reader, as it did for me. A wonderful little treasure.

First, it's Mark Twain - the very pseudonym a poke in the ribs - and it's full of essays on his views of life, letters to editors, milkmen and burglars. He never pokes fun at his family, much, but sees the world as a tiresome place in which to try to exist, and his fellowman as more tiresome still. It's a glimpse at a time gone by, when a note on the front door telling any future robbers that the previous pair have already taken the silverware but they're welcome to the two candlesticks in the parlor might have even made sense since the doors weren't locked.

I really enjoyed the assortment of stories and quotes in this book. It gives you a flavor of Mark Twains writing beyon Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer that many of us have read.Mark Twain has a great depth and is humor. This book will give you a flavor of his writting and perhaps make you want to read more of his writing.

The book is hard to read, as the typeface size is too small. It looks to me as if the book was set for a larger format, and then, perhaps for economic reasons, optically reduced to 6x8". If you look at the footers, which include the title, chapter and page, you'll see how odd they are; the page number in particular is very hard to decipher. Some of the pages are printed unevenly too, making the characters too small and too light in places. And the pictures and graphics, while nice, in quite a few cases are cropped strangely--again suggesting a larger size was originally used and abandoned. All in all, it's a shame, because the material, as much as I could read, anyhow, appears to be a nice compilation.

The man is a genius. Charming, witty, even biting at times, and to be understood with an undercurrent of the love of mankind and his foibles and failings, as well as the pathos of having a lived a life of struggle and pain. He was a real person, and what he had to say is still real today. Read him with your heart.

If you are a blue-blooded "Twain-ist", or if you are a Pragmatist to the Nth, or even simply a light-hearted person who can laugh at the Human Race... "Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living" will not only entertain you from cover to cover but also provide ample material (albeit of debatable propriety) for the management of your daily Life. Two Thumbs Up !

mark twain is one of the best writers I'hve read