what books did mark twain read?
George MacDonald Charles Dickens Plutarch Thomas Malory William Dean Howells Thomas Paine Miguel de Cervantes Robert Browning
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 The book was popular in the Thirteen Colonies of America , and its appeal survived the American War of Independence , copies being owned by Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson and George Washington . 

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 An indirect effect of the success of the show was the career of James Michener . His one percent of the show as author of the source material , plus the income from a share which the duo allowed him to buy on credit , made him financially independent and allowed him to quit his job as an editor at Macmillan and to become a full @-@ time writer . Over the next five decades , his lengthy , detailed novels centering on different places would dominate the bestseller lists . 

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 The published work , Abraham Lincoln : A History , alternates parts in which Lincoln is at center with discussions of contextual matters , such as legislative events or battles . The first serial installment , published in November 1886 , received positive reviews . When the ten @-@ volume set emerged in 1890 , it was not sold in bookstores , but instead door @-@ to @-@ door , then a common practice . Despite a price of $ 50 , and the fact that a good part of the work had been serialized , five thousand copies were quickly sold . The books helped forge the modern view of Lincoln as great war leader , against competing narratives that gave more credit to subordinates such as Seward . According to historian Joshua Zeitz , " it is easy to forget how widely underrated Lincoln the president and Lincoln the man were at the time of his death and how successful Hay and Nicolay were in elevating his place in the nation 's collective historical memory . " 

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 He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle , written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle . After moving to England for the family business in 1815 , he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon , Gent. in 1819 – 20 . He continued to publish regularly — and almost always successfully — throughout his life , and just eight months before his death ( at age 76 , in Tarrytown , New York ) , completed a five @-@ volume biography of George Washington . 

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 Hay began his part of the writing in 1876 ; the work was interrupted by illnesses of Hay , Nicolay , or family members , or by Hay 's writing of The Bread @-@ Winners . By 1885 , Hay had completed the chapters on Lincoln 's early life , and they were submitted to Robert Lincoln for approval . Sale of the serialization rights to The Century magazine , edited by Hay 's friend Richard Gilder , helped give the pair the impetus to bring what had become a massive project to an end . 
