Well, er, uh.... I think it would be worthwhile to attempt to trace which elements of his cynicism were rooted in personal experience and which ones reflected the larger social context, knowing from the get-go that it's not going to be 100% one way or the other. From Gribben you can get an idea of what magazines and newspapers he regularly read at different periods in his life, and how those might have fed into it. You can trace his literary and social connections (rowdy newspaper associates from the early days, later the Nook Farm elite, and finally his worshipful friendship with Henry Rogers), to get an idea of who he spent time with and what they talked about. To examine his cynicism toward government, you'd probably want to start with his experience reporting the doings of the Nevada Territorial legislature, then trace his life-long frustrations dealing with copyright problems, examine the careers of the political figures he knew over time, and so on. The possibilities are endless. His interviews are full of comments on current events, more and more often as he gets older. What were his experiences? What were his sources of information? One things that has always struck me about Twain is that unlike many of us, his sources of information were not limited to his own social circles --he was always eager to engage whoever he happened to meet and learn their thoughts and feelings. He listened to the President of Standard Oil, and he listened to a shoe-shine boy. There is something to be said for having friends in high and low places. I suspect you'll find the seeds of his cynicism very early on. Maybe as it deepened and matured (under the influence of... see all of the above, and more) he was simply less reluctant to express it. In that connection, you might examine the nature of the writings Twain did not want published during his lifetime and compare them to those he was willing to publish, and see if that provides a measure of his cynicism. I don't think you can base his cynicism solely on the major events of his life that I outlined, and did not mean to give that impression. I don't think he became a complete cynic, even at the very end. I think it makes more sense to examine all of the things that might have influenced him -- personal events, his readings, his friends, current events,. and how it all contributed to the evolution of his inner life. Kevin Mac Donnell Austin TX 78730