Thanks for your reply, David. My interpretation of Twain's positions toward society in his youth and middle years has me to believe that although he was often deeply effected and decidedly outspoken, he also maintained something of an idealist's perspective about many issues. I think perhaps he felt that he could help society by pointing out the worms in the apple. I believe that the formation of cynicism typically begins from just such an idealistic youthful perception of life and its challenges. Over time setbacks accumulate, and at the end the cynic more-or-less accepts the futility of the situation and here the slippery slope becomes ever steeper. What happened to Twain happens to a lot of people, in his case we just happen to be able to peek through the peephole at his personal life while reading his texts at the same time. I would also have to add that his increasingly large public persona probably put a lot more pressure on Twain than most anyone might tolerate. Also problematic to any discussion about cynicism is that the term is interpreted and employed in different ways. And I certainly would not consider Twain to be a modern Diogenes. Perhaps at the end but certainly not throughout his life-span. I would be interested in hearing your views about this, and would be happy to send you my paper on between-cynicism offline. Twain's in there... I find your comment about the study of Twain being oriented toward literary types quite interesting. I am conducting a sociological investigation of Twain's life and times, and I certainly do not know that much about literary theory. I wonder if this spells trouble ahead. Steve Crawford