His favorite was "Joan of Arc." He had many unfavorites, but when the
Jumping Frog story became an overnight sensation, He bemoaned to his
motherand sister in a letter (Jan 20th, 1866) that the story, a villainous
backwoods sketch would be singled out by those New York people to compliment
him on. Perhaps his use of Ben Coon's story (told in Angels Camp) didn't
feel much
like his own, even though he'd worked hard at revising it. That story would
be my vote for his least favorite published story. He also wrote a couple
of
plays he thought were horrid.
David H. Fears