Wow.  I have read all 29 volumes in the Oxford 
Mark Twain set EXCEPT for Joan of Arc.

I tried. I really did. I  got a few pages into it, 
but a severe gagging reflect prevented me from 
continuing, and on advice of my doctor, I've not 
opened it again.

Twain is more than an author to me, he is a hero 
of mine, but like all human beings he was fallible 
and if e'er there was a statement with which I 
disagree from the bottom of whatever soul I have, 
it's the statement that Joan of Arc is his best book.

Indeed, although I know that factually it was a 
Mark Twain book, to me it doesn't walk like a Mark 
Twain book nor quack like a Mark Twain book.

Kind of how I feel about Bob Dylan's "Christmas in 
the Heart" album.

I respect that others' mileage may vary.

-Steve Hoffman, Takoma Park MD

On 1/24/2019 12:03 PM, Hal Bush wrote:
> Do not recall hearing this specific one before:
>
>
> A young boy approached Mark Twain one day, after spotting the famous author standing alone on a stone bridge in Redding, Conn. Twain was a familiar presence in the community, and the boy had awaited such a chance to express his admiration. “I was glad that he was alone,” Coley Taylor recalled years later in an article in American Heritage<https://www.americanheritage.com/content/our-neighbor-mark-twain>. “I had wanted to tell him how much I had enjoyed Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.”
>
>
> But Twain’s response to the young boy’s praise was shocking. “I had never seen him so cross. I can see him yet, shaking that long forefinger at me,” Taylor recalled. “You shouldn’t read those books about bad boys!” the author scolded. “Now listen to what an old man tells you. My best book is my Recollections of Joan of Arc. You are too young to understand and enjoy it now, but read it when you are older. Remember then what I tell you now. Joan of Arc is my very best book.”
>
>
>
> Dr. Hal Bush
>
> Dept. of English
>
> Saint Louis University
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> 314-977-3616
>
> http://halbush.com
>
> author website:  halbush.com
>