Review
“In The Statesman and the Storyteller, Mark Zwonitzer, a documentary film producer, director and writer, provides an engaging narrative of the last decade of the parallel lives of America's most illustrious writer and one of the nation's most influential secretaries of state. Set in the context of the emergence of the United States as a world power, the book is also a vivid and at times moving account of patriotism, honor, integrity and family tragedy.” ─Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Compelling…it makes that decade come alive, with interesting doses of arcane history.” ─St. Louis Post-Dispatch
“…a jam-packed, engrossing epic of American political and diplomatic history…. Zwonitzer handles all this material superbly, giving us a cornucopia of social and atmospheric detail without losing sight of the big picture. [He] deploys his glittering cast to near-novelistic effect.” ─Bookforum
“A compelling narrative, opening rare insight into an exceptional friendship played out in the shadow of epoch-making geopolitics.” ─Booklist (starred)
“Absorbing….This book is so well written I did not want it to end. With exhaustive research and superlative descriptive skills, Zwonitzer is able to capture mood and tone, bringing his prolific and often-profiled subjects to life and leading the reader to consistently feel present in the moment.” ─BookPage
“The Statesman and the Storyteller: John Hay, Mark Twain, and the Rise of American Imperialism is an engaging, funny and heartbreaking history, well worth its 547 pages of narrative text.” ─Durham Herald-Sun
“In this wonderful new history, America’s true emergence as a real global player at the end of the nineteenth century is explored through two titans of the age—Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt’s Secretary of State, John Hay, and America’s (maybe the world’s) best known writer, Mark Twain. Part Great Men, part Forces of Nature, Zwonitzer’s book convinces that changes in the fate of nations often happens ‘all at once, spurred by the need to adapt quickly to extraordinary events—or be crushed by them.’” ─Manhattan Book Review
“The Statesman and the Storyteller is one of the best and most enjoyable books I have ever read in my life, on any subject and in any genre. Samuel Clemens made "Mark Twain" into an icon and a family business, but here Mark Zwonitzer gives us Clemens himself, in full, deep, dark color. John Hay is enjoying a new round of political influence now, as the Republican party revives his memory to try to inspire a post-Bush-Cheney conservative foreign policy renaissance. But here is Hay in life and in the politics of his time, seen as clearly as we have ever seen him: challenged and brilliant and human. Zwonitzer has discovered that Clemens and Hay's intersection as friends and conflicted patriots in complicated times is one of the great personal stories of American political history. What a wonderful story, what a riveting book.” ─Rachel Maddow, Host of MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
“Mark Zwonitzer’s book is the wonderfully rich story of two dramatically different, but compellingly interesting men, whose friendship and achievements encompass America’s rise to wealth and world power at the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th. His sharp eye for detail, his ability to turn history and biography into story, and his ability to bring not only the protagonists, but the people around them, into vivid drama makes this a deeply insightful and satisfying book.” ─Michael Korda, author of CLOUDS OF GLORY and HERO
“The parallel lives of two of America’s greatest sons will make you want to cheer. It will bring tears to the eyes of even the most hard-hearted political cynic.” ─James McBride, author of The Good Lord Bird
“Set at the dawn of the United States’ rise to world power, this well told and moving story about the unexpected relationship of an artist and a political leader should help readers understand how we came to be what we are today." ─Bob Kerrey, former US senator, author of When I Was a Young Man
From the Back Cover
“What a riveting book. What a wonderful story . . .
. . . Mark Zwonitzer gives us Clemens himself, in full, deep, dark color. John Hay is enjoying a new round of political influence now as the Republican Party revives his memory to try to inspire a post–Bush-Cheney conservative foreign policy renaissance. But here is Hay in life and in the politics of his time, seen as clearly as we have ever seen him: challenged and brilliant and human. Zwonitzer has discovered that Clemens and Hay’s intersection as friends and conflicted patriots in complicated times is one of the great personal stories of American political history.” —Rachel Maddow, author of Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power
“A wonderfully rich story of two dramatically different but compellingly interesting men whose friendship and achievements encompassed America’s rise to wealth and world power at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Mark Zwonitzer’s sharp eye for detail, his ability to turn history and biography into story, and his ability to bring not only the protagonists but the people around them into vivid drama make this a deeply insightful and satisfying book.” —Michael Korda, author of Clouds of Glory
“Set at the dawn of the United States’ rise to world power, this well-told and moving story about the unexpected relationship of an artist and a political leader should help readers understand how we came to be what we are today.” —Bob Kerrey, former U.S. senator, author of When I Was a Young Man
“A compelling narrative, opening rare insight into an exceptional friendship played out in the shadow of epoch-making geopolitics . . . Fascinated readers will marvel at how mutual regard sustained the tie between Hays and Twain.”
—Booklist, starred review
About the Author
Mark Zwonitzer is an American author and documentary filmmaker.
Joe Barrett, an actor and Audie Award and Earphones Award-winning narrator, has appeared both on and off Broadway as well as in hundreds of radio and television commercials.
