Folks; As many of you know, I am part of a working group on American Literature and Religion that is being funded by the Pew Charitable Trust. Among other things, this group is beginning a series of volumes that will present the best previous scholarship along with newly-commissioned essays on the religious dimensions of the works of several major American authors. One of the first two volumes will be on Mark Twain, and I have been selected to spearhead organize and edit the Twain volume. Later I will send out a Call for Proposals for those interested and prepared to contribute to such a volume. Meanwhile I would like to ask LIST-members to contact me, either over the LIST or in private, with essays or book chapters of the recent or distant past that cover significant aspects of Mark Twain's interests in and uses of American or world religions. In particular I am trying to put together a list of the 12-24 essays or chapters that seem to be the most crucial (dare I even suggest to say canonical) discussions of these sorts of topics. Part of the problem is that religion can cover so much. There are, for example, important brief essays on things like freemasonry or Robert Ingersoll--should these be included? Or science and Darwinism, a la Sherwood Cummings? Or should we go for more broadly general discussions of Twain's religious impulses as in works by Bernard DeVoto, Stanley Brodwin, Allison Ensor, James Cox, Gregg Camfield, or James Wilson? At times such an assigment fills me with despair--can such a thing even be imagined? Well, I guess someone has to imagine it. I certainly know which essays I have found to be most useful--and most truthful! However I would VERY SINCERELY like to hear what LIST-members consider to be the crucial writings on this rather ponderous area of scholarship. Obviously, the folks on this LIST are the ones who are most potentially interested in such a project, so tell me: What do you think needs to be in such a collection? Hal Bush