Hal, I addressed the traditional idea of Twain's so-called "dark writings" coming out of personal issues in a paper I presented at the MLA conference in D.C. a few years ago. It's online at: Mark Twain on Imperial Washington, 1900-1910 http://www.boondocksnet.com/twain/mla_mtdc.html Here's part of the concluding paragraph: >> When Twain's views and his preoccupation with imperial Washington are considered, he does fit Jaher's description of the cataclysmic writers. He faced personal tragedies, but he was also "obsessed with the idea of holocaust," "joined abortive crusades" and "belonged to defeated movements," and envisioned a social struggle with "a defiant force involving society in its own destruction." Although the creation of an empire brought many of the issues involved to the fore in 1900, his views on many of them can be traced back to much earlier works. This suggests that his later works should not be seen solely as reflections of his personal tragedies but as statements of widely shared beliefs about the political and social transformations of the age. << Jim Zwick