NONFICTION

_A Chance Meeting: Intertwined Lives of American Artists and Writers,
1854-1967_ by Rachel Cohen. Hardcover. 384 pages. Random House, 2004.  ISBN
1-4000-6164-4. $25.95. Cohen's book contains thirty-six chapters on famous
writers and artists and their notable acquaintances. Three chapters of
approximately ten pages each are devoted to Twain and William Dean Howells,
Twain and Ulysses Grant, and Twain and Willa Cather. Cohen acknowledges
that her writing is "imaginative nonfiction" wherein she provides her own
ideas of what each person thought and said. Separation of facts from
conjecture are provided in her endnotes for each chapter. Such conjecture
is sometimes confusing as in the case where Cohen describes Willa Cather's
attire at Twain's seventieth birthday party as "something simple" and then
acknowledges in her endnotes "I don't know what she wore" -- this in spite
of the fact that _Harper's Weekly_ published photos of Cather in her dress
at the party. Cohen has relied heavily on Justin Kaplan's _Mr. Clemens and
Mark Twain_ for much of the material for chapters devoted to Twain. Other
chapters are devoted to notables such as Henry James, Mathew Brady, Annie
Adams Fields, Walt Whitman, Gertrude Stein, Sarah Orne Jewett, Gertrude
Stein, Katherine Anne Porter, Alfred Stieglitz, Hart Crane, Charlie
Chaplin, Norman Mailer, Langston Hughes and numerous others.

Amazon features a "search inside" option for this book:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400061644/twainwebmarktwaiA/

The same title is also available in softcover. ISBN 0-8129-7129-9. $14.95.

Amazon link for softcover edition is:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0812971299/twainwebmarktwaiA/

Barbara Schmidt
Book Review Editor