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

Cooper, Robert.  _Around the World with Mark Twain_.  New York: Arcade
Publishing, 2000.  Pp. 432.  Bibliographical notes and index.  Hardcover, 6
1/8 x 9 1/4".  $27.95.  ISBN 1-55970-522-1.

Partial text from the jacket reads:

~~~~~
On July 14, 1895, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a.k.a. Mark Twain, fifty-nine
years old and deeply in debt, boarded a night train from Elmira to
Cleveland and launched an unprecedented worldwide performance tour. A
superb platform entertainer and an international celebrity, Clemens saw the
tour as a quick way to make the money he desperately needed to pay his
creditors and recoup his fortune, and so he began a journey that took him
across North America to Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, and
South Africa. One hundred years later, American writer Robert Cooper set
out from Elmira in pursuit of Twain, following virtually every step of the
legendary writer's itinerary across four continents.

In this remarkable feat of biographical recreation, we see Clemens make his
way from the smelters, roasting ovens, and smokestacks of Butte, Montana,
where pollution was so horrific that not even grass could grow, to a
vermin-infested jail in Pretoria, South Africa, where he lifted the spirits
of some of the country's richest men, the imprisoned members of the Reform
Committee who had been convicted of treason by the Boer government. Along
the way, we glimpse Clemens the consummate professional, constantly
rehearsing his routines so that they would seem completely spontaneous. And
we even see Twain the celebrity: railing against late trains and ferries,
grumbling about hotel accommodations, and complaining about ill health and
the tedium and drudgery of endless one-night stands, all the while basking
in the adulation and affection of his audiences, enjoying the all-male
camaraderie of club suppers and press conferences, and delighting in
meeting the great and powerful of the lands through which he traveled.

The book draws upon a wide range of primary sources and first-hand
accounts--including Clemens's letters, journal entries, and notes; his
comments to local newspapers; the letters of his wife and daughter who
accompanied him; and the observations of his tour managers.

ROBERT COOPER is an American writer who retired as professor of sociology
and education at the Hebrew University. He lives in Jerusalem with his
wife, who accompanied him for most of his journey in pursuit of Mark Twain.


~~~~~

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within two months of your receipt of the book (i.e., due approximately
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Thanks,
Barbara Schmidt
Book review editor, Mark Twain Forum