Hi Sue, > How well did Clemens speak/write German? That depends on how you define "well." -- I'm assuming you have a specific reason for asking this question. It might be easier to respond to your research interest if you would specify the context for your question. Generally, a fair amount of scholarship on the topic is already available, for example: Cracroft, Richard H. "'Exactly the German Way': Mark Twain's Comic Strategies with 'The Awful German Language'." Thalia: Studies in Literary Humor 13, no. 1-2 (1993): 11-21. Hemminghaus, Edgar. "Mark Twain's German Provenience." Modern Language Quarterly: A Journal of Literary History VI, no. December (1945): 459-478. -----. Mark Twain in Germany. New York: Columbia University Press, 1939. Kersten, Holger. "'Human Natur in a Forren Aspeck': Mark Twain's Encounters with German Culture." Mark Twain Review (The Mark Twain Circle of Korea) 4 (1999): 47-72. -----. "Mark Twain and the Funny Magic of the German Language." New Directions in American Humor., ed. David E. E. Sloane Tuscaloosa, Ala.: University of Alabama Press, 1998. 284-305. Klett, Ada M. "'Meisterschaft' or the True State of Mark Twain's German." American-German Review VII (1940): 10-11. Krumpelmann, John T. Mark Twain and the German Language. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1953. Schultz, John Richie. "New Letters of Mark Twain." American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, VIII (1936): 47-51. Sewell, David R. Mark Twain's Languages: Discourse, Dialogue, and Linguistic Variety. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1987. Thomas, Ursula. "Mark Twain's German Language Learning Experiences." Teaching German in America: A Prolegomena to a History. Eds. David P. Benseler, Walter F. W. Lohnes and Valters Nollendorfs. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988. 133-143. Wecter, Dixon. "Mark Twain As a Translator From the German." American Literature: A Journal of Literary History, Criticism, and Bibliography XIII (1941-1942): 257-263. Weishert, John J. "Once Again: Mark Twain and German." Mark Twain Journal XII, no. Summer (1965): 16. Best, Holger