Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1

[JC]

Heard a piece on NPR today about the release of Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1. I see it's available unabridged as a 20-CD audio book, read by Grover Gardner. Anybody get a copy of it yet and have any comments to share? Or is anyone familiar with the narrator? Thinking about adding it to my xmas shopping list.

[Janet]

J.C. wrote: "Heard a piece on NPR today about the release of Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1. I see it's available unabridged as a 20-CD audio book, read by Grover Gardner ...Or is anyone familiar with the narrator?..."

Let me put it this way...when I heard who was narrating, I said "damn!" 'cause I'd been looking forward to hearing that book. I can think of 6-8 others I would have preferred gotten that reading job. But Gardner's narrated hundreds of books, so obviously lots of people like him. Go to Audible.com and you can play a sample of any one of his many narrations.

[Christine]

I'm not fond of Grover Gardner either. Just last week I gave up on a book after only 2 hours because I didn't like his narration. But that's the only thing I've listened to that he's read, so maybe I'd like something else better.

[John, Moderator]

He's okay with (some) fiction, but really hit-or-miss in terms of being a fit for a book. I listened to the sample at Blackstone, and it was the usual GG performance. I'll take that over the guy who does Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World with a Missouri border-state twang.

[Janet]

John wrote: "... I'll take that over the guy who does Following the Equator: A Journey Around the World with a Missouri border-state twang...."

Michael Kevin...I'd never heard of him. (Is that a Missouri-type twang? I swear I heard some Maine-isms creep in!) And you're right - he wouldn't be my choice, either.

In a perfect world, this book would have been published when a 60-year-old Hal Holbrook could have done the narration.

[John, Moderator]

I think Kevin is trying to immitate Twain's Missouri accent.