Thing One (borrowing from Dr. Seuss): Join the Mark Twain Circle of
America, if you're not already a member.  For the ridiculously low price
(we try to make as many things ridiculous as possible) of $25 for annual
dues ($27 for a non-U.S. address), you'll receive the two semiannual
issues of the Mark Twain Circular (now edited by Chad Rohman, Dominican
University) and the hard-copy version (not available elsewhere) of The
Mark Twain Annual (now edited by Ann Ryan, Le Moyne College).
Membership in the Circle also gives you the official right to identify
yourself as a Twainian--or if you prefer Vic Doyno's term, a Twainiac.
Use this web address to get a form you can print out and send, along
with your dues payment, to the Circle's Executive Coordinator Kerry
Driscoll, Saint Joseph University:
http://www.honors.uiuc.edu/files/mtcircle/signup.pdf

Thing Two: Ask your library to subscribe to the online version of The
Mark Twain Annual, available separately for $133/yr, or better still, as
part of Wiley-Blackwell's "American Literature Collection" (which also
includes The F. Scott Fitzgerald Review, Leviathan, Poe Studies, and the
Steinbeck Review) for $598/yr.  Library subscriptions are an important
revenue source for the Mark Twain Circle, and are crucial in giving The
Mark Twain Annual widespread exposure.  Here's the web address for The
Mark Twain Annual and the American Literature Collection:
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/subs.asp?ref=1553-0981&site=1

Thing Three: While you're at it, you may also want to ask your library
to subscribe to the Mark Twain Circular.  It's very affordable: $15 for
a U.S. address; $17 for non-U.S.  (Your librarian will, no doubt, gasp
in grateful surprise at the price.)  If the library uses a subscription
service (as most do), the subscription service probably can handle the
subscription.

Thing Four: Submit your critical or pedagogical essay for publication in
The Mark Twain Annual.  Send an electronic (preferably Word) version of
your essay to Ann Ryan, at [log in to unmask]  To view "Author
Guidelines" for the Annual, go to
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/submit.asp?ref=1553-0981.

Once you've done these four things (and possibly graded a gadzillion
final exams), you can enjoy the holidays in good conscience.

--Jim Leonard
(Managing Editor of the Annual and Erstwhile Editor of the Circular)