I believe Barb is right on target.

Mrs. Ober can usually tell that I am reading one of the University of California editions of Twain's letters or works.
My outbursts of laughter suggest the possibility.
The proof for her, though, comes when she sees that I am simultaneously using 2 bookmarks to read a single book [one planted in the text, one in the annotations]. It was disconcerting to her the first time she caught me at it, but she has come to understand and accept.

Even so, it was quite a shock for her to see me recently reading a book [the Autobiography] with THREE bookmarks. 

One bookmark was to keep my place in the text.
One bookmark was to keep my place in the annotations.
And the third bookmark was to keep my place in the introduction, which can be read simultaneously as a fascinating story of detective work and discovery that provides wonderful insights for anyone who wants to read it.

The problem with book reviewers these days is that they just don't use enough bookmarks.

Pat Ober

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barbara Schmidt
Sent: Monday, December 20, 2010 11:44 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Garrison Keillor on the autobiography

I think both of the New York reviewers were intimidated by the
scholarly apparatus which is one of the most valuable things I found
in the book.  I think both would have been happy with something akin
to the Paine version of the autobiography. That is not what this
edition is about.  It is about finding the keys to the inner workings
of a creative mind -- and how that mind was constantly revealing
itself (and in some cases trying to conceal itself) with little dabs
of painted narrative that add up to a whole picture. The two reviewers
call the book a "Royal Nonesuch" because they are not able to
comprehend the larger picture and they think they have been
hornswaggled by publicity. I'd be surprised if either reviewer spent
time reading the annotations.  I am reminded of the closing lines of
Mark Twain's "A Fable" and the moral by the cat, "You can find in a
text whatever you bring, if you will stand between it and the mirror
of your imagination. You may not see your ears, but they will be
there."

Barb