Susan Dorman wrote:

> How well did Clemens speak/write German?

    Rather well, in my opinion.  His play "Meisterschaft," written in
German, shows good competence.  He delivered amusing speeches in German, and
had good enough knowledge of the language to be able to make rather clever
wordplay in German.  Whenever he used the language in his stories, or travel
journals, it was well done.  He worked hard at it, both for himself and
helping his daughters to learn the language.

    He, of course, downplayed his own abilities, but it's clear that he was
quite competent in this difficult language.

    The best thing about his German is that he writes the language like he
writes English--without pretentious floweriness.

Alan Eliasen