While in the midst of researching Mark Twain's autobiography, I just 
noticed that yesterday, Sunday, was the 100th anniversary of Charles 
Neider's birth on January 18, 1915. Neider, as I'm sure most of you know 
published _The Autobiography of Mark Twain_ in 1959, arranging the 
material in an approximation of a cradle-to-grave narrative that differs 
greatly from the new University of California Press edition of the same 
material. Neider's version is still in print (at least in a Kindle 
edition) and has probably been read by more people than any other edition.

Neider died in 2001. Though almost forgotten today, he had an enormous 
impact on Mark Twain studies and on public perceptions of Mark Twain 
through the numerous volumes of Mark Twain's stories, sketches, essays, 
novels, letters, and speeches that he edited. Among those volumes is 
_The Complete Short Stories of Mark Twain_ (first published in 1957 and 
still available in a Kindle edition), which is almost certainly the most 
widely read collection of Mark Twain's stories ever published. While we 
should thank Neider for helping to keep Mark Twain's name alive through 
such books, we must also regret has lapses, such as including the 
editorial fraud "The Mysterious Stranger" in his short story collection.

I’ll end this note by acknowledging that Neider’s collections of Mark 
Twain’s stories, sketches, and essays played an important role in 
drawing me into Mark Twain studies. I don’t know whether that fact 
should be placed in his credit column or his debit column, but wherever 
he is now, I’ll wish him a happy birthday.