Lloyd: You've received many good suggestions. While I much prefer reading Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain by Justin Kaplan, at some point you may want to jump in on Mark Twain, A Biography by Albert Bigelow Paine. It's in three volumes. Some of the details will both aggravate you and reward you. And, he has an annoying habit of relating incidents and then saying something like, "but we need not go into that here." Yet, he was at Twain's side in the final years. As an authorized, first-hand account it's the best we have. Keep in mind that he and Twain's daughter Clara co-conspired to keep his memory as lily-white as one of his suits -- so don't expect "the dark side of the moon." Good luck to you. Roger Durrett