_Fairest Picture: Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe_. By David C. Antonucci. Art of
Learning Publishing, Lake Tahoe, 2011. Pp 302, 122 illustrations. Softcover.
$17.99. ISBN 978-1463765699.

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Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum by:
Arianne Laidlaw

Copyright (c) 2011 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published or
redistributed in any medium without permission.

Mark Twain got over his first heated objections to changing the name of Lake
Bigler to Lake Tahoe. In his later works he referred to Tahoe as his
favorite lake in the entire world. He wrote and lectured for years about his
original discovery of its beauty when he and an acquaintance went there
intending to stake a timber claim. In _Roughing It_ he described his first
impression: "it must surely be the fairest picture the whole earth affords."
There is some irony in his claim that he managed to deface it by starting a
forest fire there on his first visit in 1861.

If you have followed the news coverage this past year of the controversy
between Nevada and California, each state vying for the honors of
identifying the location of Mark Twain's timber claim, David Antonucci's
_Fairest Picture_ will be of interest. Antonucci presents what he calls a
"preponderance of evidence" that the location was in California on the north
shore of Lake Tahoe.

Mark Twain Forum subscribers who took advantage of the author's offer for a
free download of Chapter Eight of _Fairest Picture_ will be familiar with
Antonucci's arguments in favor of the California claim. Several of his
points are persuasive. The fact that Mark Twain in _Roughing It_ describes
the location as on the "north shore" is hard to ignore. Antonucci's argument
that both the white and grey rocks described by Twain are only visible in
the water near the north shore is a good point. His discussion about the
most likely route Mark Twain would have used to arrive at the lake is also
plausible. The explanation that Mark Twain found the area isolated from
other people was evidence he was not at the busy Nevada area made sense.
Antonucci's argument that the size of the trees, which were different in the
two locations, also has merit. Even the distance to "blue water" from the
shore is worth consideration.

Less convincing are Antonucci's opinions on the "flat rock" which figures in
Mark Twain’s descriptions of dining and card playing at Tahoe. He includes a
photo of flat rocks demonstrating that they exist on the "northeast"
quadrant of the lake near where he thinks Mark Twain's "upper camp" was
located. Identifying and distinguishing between the upper and lower camps is
problematic. Antonucci asserts that the terms "upper" and "lower" were
Clemens's way of associating the name of the camp with the adjoining
terrain.

Antonucci argues that an historical fire survey has been conducted at the
site that Nevada proponents claim was the location of Mark Twain's timber
claim. This survey determined there had been no fire there in the 1860s.
Antonucci's arguments might be more persuasive if a historical
fire survey had also been done at the possible California north shore site.
While Antonucci is not responsible for such a survey, the lack of
such evidence for his proposed site is worth noting. The forest fire Twain
claimed he started was a large factor in his letters home at the time and in
his later _Roughing It_ account.

_Fairest Picture_ has some interesting photos and many maps, some which do
not always deliver precise information. For example, Carnelian Bay is
discussed, but I failed to find it on any map included in the book. A map
with all of the geographic names used in the text would have been welcome. A
list of illustrations would have been helpful as well as a more
comprehensive index.

_Fairest Picture_ contains a wealth of general information about Lake Tahoe
and its history. Antonucci provides several interesting examples of earlier
visitors' views of the Lake, including John Fremont's 1844 account.
Antonucci also gives descriptions of the activity around the lake in the
1800s including the activities of both long-time Washoe residents and the
newcomers from the east. A later chapter discusses present day access to
locations Antonucci describes in the book. An Appendix presents selected
passages from Mark Twain's works relevant to Lake Tahoe. But Antonucci's
primary goal is to establish his argument for the location of Mark Twain's
timber claim in California. The Nevada vs. California debate will continue,
no doubt, and this book covers the argument for the California side of the
duel.

_____


Reviewed by Arianne Laidlaw, Mark Twain enthusiast. Under her married name
(Jeanne Adamson), she wrote her Master’s Thesis _Mark Twain’s Nemesis: His
Beloved Brother, Henry_ at the University of Texas in El Paso. After two
years in West Africa with the Peace Corps, she entered the PhD program at
the University of California in Berkeley to be near the Mark Twain Papers.
She had to drop out due to a family crisis but returned to do research over
a decade later, where she was diverted by some articles preserved in a Mark
Twain scrapbook which she thought he anonymously wrote. The fascination
continues.