Dear Friends, The South Atlantic Modern Language Association will hold its annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, 9-11 November 2001, and, as usual, The Mark Twain Circle will host a session as one of the more popular affiliated groups. With the following Call for Papers, I invite complete papers or detailed abstracts, due no late than 20 April 2001. My deadline to report our program is 30 April. I look forward to hearing from you. Philip W. Leon, Prof. of English, The Citadel, 171 Moultrie Street, Charleston, SC 29409-6310. CALL FOR PAPERS The Mark Twain Circle of the South Atlantic Modern Language Association invites papers for its session at the 2001 SAMLA Convention on the topic "MARK TWAIN'S DETRACTORS AND DEFENDERS" Beneath this broad topic might appear papers dealing with Mark Twain's personal and/or his professional life. A typical paper for this session might present interesting details about MT's friendship with, for example, Henry Huttleston Rogers of Standard Oil who provided financial advice following MT's bankruptcy. Another paper might present new information about MT's friendship with non-literary figures such as Ulysses S. Grant. MT also had his detractors. Examples include his bitter feud with former friend Bret Harte, or the vilification MT received in the national press over his involvement with the anti-imperialism movement at the turn of the century. If you are pursuing a research question that might fit this general topic, be sure to consult Paul Machlis' Union Catalog of Clemens Letters (1986) and his Union Catalog of Letters to Clemens (1992). This also would be a good starting point to discover little-known but interesting personalities with whom MT corresponded. If you have a special MT project that does not quite fit the Call for Papers topic, please send it along, and perhaps we will be able to fine-tune the program to accommodate your paper. Remember, the DEADLINE is 20 April 2001.