Dear Michael,

Interestingly, it wasn't just "major" writers whom Twain sometimes
criticized; he also developed a voracious appetite for truly minor authors.
I sketched out some of his proclivities in "'I Kind of Love Small Game':
Mark Twain's Library of Literary Hogwash," AMERICAN LITERARY REALISM 9
(Winter 1976):  64-76.  Twain's friends even starting sending him examples
of badly written books, knowing his fondness for this stuff and soliciting
his explosions of indignation.

Regards,
Alan

Alan Gribben
Auburn University Montgomery