It is impossible to deny that Mark Twain was an interesting character who led an extraordinary life. His voice echoes through American literature as one of its greatest storytellers and humorists. It stands alone not only in its message but also in the delivery of that message. In her book, The Sagebrush Bohemian, Nigey Lennon proposes that Twain's formative years were those that he spent as a burgeoning newspaperman in what is now the Western United States. She claims that most of Twain's biographers have overlooked his early newspaper days. Yet she attempts to claim that his free-spirited youth was instrumental in forming his literary style and message. In her attempt to justify her thesis, she tells a story which might be sheer boredom were it not for its central character, Twain.

The book attempts to highlight three main points about Twain. First he is shown as an adventurous young man looking for good times and riches. Second, he is shown as a young newspaper writer whose style develops into that of a great author. And third, he is shown as a part of a burgeoning literary scene centered in San Francisco. The three points are intertwined as we see Twain's search for adventure steer his life towards journalism and as we see journalism become an avenue for adventure.

The path that the book takes falls far short of its goal. For very little is proven except that the author has read Roughing It, and that she has spent some time pouring over a few other primary sources. From its first pages, the book follows Mark Twain's narrative of the time that he spent on the frontier. And certainly this is an exciting tale. I enjoyed it the first time I read it. But to read it again, this time written by someone who's writing skills fall short of Mr. Twain's, left me yawning.

As I have already mentioned, what saves this book is Twain. The author makes use of her golden subject and many of his choice quotes. Probably the best of these comes right before the Preface to the book. Lennon quotes Twain: "Get the facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you want." And this is precisely what she has done (although it could be argued that in using Twain's Roughing It as her main source, the "facts" that she has "gotten" might be a little skewed). She has found some facts and used them throughout the book to attempt to tie together a weakly connected tale of the author as a Bohemian-a predecessor to Jack Kerouac.

A great part of the narrative which Lennon pieces together deals with the author's Western literary cohorts, the San Francisco Bohemians. Foremost among these is Bret Harte. Harte is presented as a literary model which Twain follows and a mentor who he outshines. If Lennon were to further her inquiry into this relationship than more light would be made of the purpose which she misses. She instead sticks to facts and in so doing fails to tie together a central theme with her own ideas.

At times she does fill in some of the more lucid details from Twain's life: suspected romances, possible venereal disease, journalistic enemies. She fills in the details (or suspected details) that Twain would not have found advantageous to inclusion in his work. And these are interesting, but they do not prove her thesis. Possibly I have asked too much of this book. Mark Twain is in actuality a creation of Samuel Clemens. The best works written about Twain are by Clemens himself. Perhaps it is best that he tell his own story the way that he wants to. In academizing Twain, Mrs. Lennon has missed her Mark.