I agree with Andy Hoffman's assessment that commercial (and other) uses of
Twain's name and likeness are a big part of the reason he remains such a
popular national icon today.  As long as he got a cut, I suspect Twain would
enjoy
most of it.  How many ad agencies and PR firms could he claim were working
for
him? :-)  Louis Budd's _Our Mark Twain: The Making of His Public
Personality_
(U. of Penn. Press, 1983) is a wonderful book on how Twain manipulated his
own
image throughout his career.

There is also another side to the image-making that goes way back. Clara
Clemens and Albert Bigelow Paine played very big roles in creating our image
of
the author by carefully screening what works to publish, what parts to
censor
before publication, etc.  Paine's influence goes far beyond fabrication of
The
Mysterious Stranger.  A more recent example of image-creation by omission wa
s
discussed in relation to his writings on race in the chapter on "The Matter
of
Hannibal" in Shelley Fisher Fishkin's _Lighting Out for the Territory:
Reflections
on Mark Twain and American Culture_ (OUP 1996).  I've recently written a
book
chapter on the posthumous treatment of his anti-imperialist writings from
their
suppression and silent editorial censorship by Paine through Cold War-era
debates to the Gulf War and the 1998 centennial of Philippine independece.
It
will be published in a week or two and is online now at:

Mark Twain's Anti-Imperialist Writings in the "American Century"
http://www.boondocksnet.com/twain/contested.html

One of my favorite examples of the careful use of omission was a toast
President
Clinton gave to British Prime Minister Major in 1995.  Clinton quoted
Twain's Dec.
1900 introduction of Winston Churchill:

"In the introduction, this is what Mark Twain said about the British and the
Americans: 'We have always been kin -- kin in blood, kin in religion, kin in
representative government, kin in ideals, kin in just and lofty purposes.'
Mark
Twain was not being humorous on that night.  He was right then.  He is right
tonight."

Clinton ended the quote right before getting to the part where Twain said
that
England and the United States were also "kin in sin" for their imperialist
wars in
South Africa and the Philippines.  I guess that's one case where "national
interests" required an abbreviated quotation.

Jim Zwick