I’ve been a Mark Twain fan my entire life. Frankly, if I could get paid to simply read his books I’d probably be happy with the minimum wage. I’m currently plowing through Albert Bigelow Paine’s biography of Twain. It’s a little dated and doesn’t stand the test of time. I’m about 60% through and would rate it simply “OK”. I have to believe that Twain’s bankruptcy due to his involvement with the Paige typesetter was a much more psychotic event for him than Bigelow suggests. His depictions of Livy and the children also leaves a lot to be desired. His infant boy’s death gets barely a mention – I believe the kid was 2 years old or so…not a 2 month old. Anyway, these are some preliminary thoughts from an admitted rank amateur.

If you want real scholarship and amazing annotations of Twain’s works go the Mark Twain Project Online at UC Berkeley: Mark Twain Project Online (MTPO). This project deserves to be much more funded than it is given the great work that it does and still needs to do. Please consider donating to the Project…the link is on the site.