Dear Forum Members, Any notice of Ed Branch's contributions to our field would probably seem incomplete, but the recently published A COMPANION TO MARK TWAIN (Blackwell, 2005), p. 548 had this to say about his work: "The earliest years of Twain's life and writings were most thoroughly charted by Edgar M. Branch in a series of monographs and articles: THE LITERARY APPRENTICESHIP OF MARK TWAIN (Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1950); CLEMENS OF THE CALL: MARK TWAIN IN SAN FRANCISCO (Berkeley: U of California P, 1969); "'My Voice Is Still for Setchell': A Background Study of 'Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog'," PMLA 82 (December 1967), 591-601; "'The Babes in the Wood': Artemus Ward's 'Double Health' to Mark Twain," PMLA 93 (October 1978), 955-972); "Mark Twain: The Pilot and the Writer," MARK TWAIN JOURNAL 23: 2 (Fall 1985), 28-43; "A Proposed Calendar of Samuel Clemens's Steamboats, 15 April 1857 to 8 May 1861, with Commentary," MARK TWAIN JOURNAL 24 (Fall 1986), 2-27; and MARK TWAIN AND THE STAR CHY BOYS, Quarry Farm Volume Series (Elmira: Center for Mark Twain Studies, Elmira College, 1992), a study of the Mississippi River pilots' associations." My own notes on Ed's publications also include "Bixby vs. Carroll: New Light on Sam Clemens's Early River Career," MARK TWAIN JOURNAL 30 (Fall 1992): 2-22; MEN CALL ME LUCKY: MARK TWAIN AND THE "PENNSYLVANIA," Miami, Ohio: Friends of the Library Society, 1985; "'Old Times on the Mississippi': Biography and Crafsmanship," NINETEENTH-CENTURY LITERATURE 45 (1990): 73-87; "A New Clemens Footprint: Soleleather Steps Forward," AMERICAN LITERATURE 54 (1982): 497-510; and "Sam Clemens, Steersman on the JOHN H. DICKEY," AMERICAN LITERARY REALISM 15 (1982): 195-208. There were numerous others, I'm sure. Clearly we have lost a wonderfully inquiring mind and (as Terrell noted) a generous and supportive colleague. Alan Gribben Auburn University Montgomery