The Mark Twain Forum needs a reviewer for the following book:

     Hoffman, Andrew.  _Inventing Mark Twain: The Lives of Samuel
     Langhorne Clemens_.  New York: William Morrow and Company, 1997.
     Pp. xviii + 564.  Cloth, 6-1/8" x 9-1/4".  Index.  $30.00.
     ISBN 0-688-12769-X.

The blurb reads:

     This important biography of Samuel Langhorne Clemens sheds new
     light on one of our most loved--and hotly debated--authors.  By
     drawing on thousands of original sources, Twain scholar Andrew
     Hoffman presents a fresh, often startling, portrait of the man who
     brought us Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.  He reveals the unexpected
     importance of events in Clemens's childhood, and deftly portrays
     Clemens as a man who invented the persona Mark Twain not out of
     comic necessity, but from a profound personal need.

     _Inventing Mark Twain_ challenges readers to rethink what they've
     learned about Clemens--with new interpretations of Clemens's
     personality ranging from his sexuality to his financial security.
     Hoffman captures the brilliance and unparalleled humor of Mark
     Twain, a man he calls "a fool, a tyrant, a philosopher, a humorist,
     an unschooled literary genius, a confidant of presidents and
     industrialists, a gladhander, a sham, a self-destructive
     narcissist."

     Andrew Hoffman is an academic, novelist, and visiting scholar at
     Brown University.  He lives in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

The book will not officially be published until March, and so the
version to be reviewed on the Forum is a paper-bound set of the
uncorrected galleys (which itself should become a bit of a collector's
item).

As usual, the review must be of publishable quality, and it would be due
within two months of your receipt of the book (i.e., due early-April
1997).  The deadline is particularly important, as we are making every
effort for Forum reviews to appear before print reviews.  If you are
inclined to procrastinate, please don't offer to review the book.

If you're interested in writing this review, please send me both your
home and institutional mailing addresses and phone numbers.  If I don't
already know you, it would be helpful for you to explain in what respect
you're qualified to write this review.  (If we haven't exchanged e-mail
recently, it might be a good idea for you to remind me of this info.)

I look forward to hearing from you.

Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]>
Coordinator, Mark Twain Forum