Folks;

I did see the entire 4-hour film of "Mark Twain" by Ken Burns et al.  It
is rather spectacular in terms of emotional effect, in my opinion.
Burns certainly knows how to put on a great show and dazzle the viewer.
In addition I felt like the film was fairly accurate throughout and
recognizes the genius, the difficulties, and so on

One of the little disappointments was the very thin coverage of Twain's
friendships.  It will surely come as no surprise that I disdained the
complete neglect of Joe Twichell;  but also, very little on Howells,
only one mention of Bret Harte's name, no mention of Cable, or
DeQuille;  of them all, only Henry Rogers got much of anything, and that
only about 30 seconds.

By way of contrast, there is a stupendous amount of time given to the
family, and the coverage of the deaths of Susy and Livy, as well as
Henry and Langdon, is moving.  coverage of slavery and esp. Mary Ann
Cord is splendid.   I found myself moved to tears ( I am not ashamed to
say) on numerous occasions!

It shows on PBS on Jan. 14 & 15.

best,

Hal Bush