On Mon, Nov 20, 2017 at 4:52 AM, Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> _Mark Twain's Geographical Imagination_. Joseph A. Alvarez, ed. Cambridge
> Scholars Publishing, 2009. Hardcover, 167 pages. $58.95. ISBN:
> 978-4438-0585-8.
>
> Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
> Barbara Schmidt
>
>
> Copyright (c) 2017 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
> redistributed in any medium without permission.
>

Thank you for this review, Barbara.   I am not sure I can excerpt the
Kesterson
paragraph which meant a great deal to me.  I share his view that the trip to
the Sandwich Island was enormously significant to Mark  Twain's  subsequent
career.
I give occasional talks and love to make the same point, except I give my
hometown and present residence, Sacramento, California, all of the credit
for Mark Twain's future
with travel writing, giving lectures, increased credibility in the east as
a newspaperman,   and writing books.  My local audiences love that twist. I
assert this view with confidence because he was commissioned to take that
voyage to the Sandwich Islands by our important newspaper at the time, The
Sacramento Union. Without it, what would have become of him?

I've feel sad that on his around the world tour, he was not able to get off
the ship there
because   cholera  was on the island.  He once said he'd like to die
there.  I know
he would have enjoyed seeing it one more time.

Thanks again,
Grateful
Arianne Laidlaw