Hal--while I have always read extensively about Mark Twain, his writings, I
do not claim a specialty. With that disclaimer, though, I have taught a
death and dying course for many years at the undergraduate level and my
counseling psychology courses and years of counseling have taught me that
Mark Twain's grief--what we would could in the jargon "complicated grief"
and the work on parental grief in the field would also suggest that Twain
was paralyzed by the loss of first, his brother, and then later his daughter
Suzy. It seems obvious that Twain's harsh critique of Christianity is
directly related to these losses. I did an initial survey of the literature
about 15 years ago on the topic and found nothing scholarly on the topic. I
would be interested in pursuing this whole set of death and dying  ideas
with a Twain scholar--any interest in collaborating on an article??? Look
foward to your response. Thanks.

Bill Urbine, Allentown, Pa.
DeSales University