This is all quite confusing; what the devil did Powers intend for the book. Are you saying that Powers is being politically antagonistic while writing popular biography of some kind, or is he trying to engage political antagonists? Is his book part and parcel to some political cause? And why would one want to engage an antagonistic culture using Twain as a front? Right on with Freshman composition. But how would we explain the genre of this biography to Freshman. What genre is it, for heaven's sake? And how many minor facts are irrelevant--a half dozen, a dozen, or ? Jason G. Horn Gordon College Barnesville, GA 30204