Hi Kevin, I enjoyed your summary biography of Twain's personal life. How would you incorporate the development of Twain's seemingly cynical views toward society and others (U.S. governments, foreigners, other governments and institutions) into this? In my own view he develops deeply cynical views toward others, whilst at the same time dealing with the very personal history you elaborate below. Perhaps the challenge is to separate the personal from the political and social. This may be hard to do in his case, but your bio seems to do just that although you do refer to the institution of slavery during his early years. How would you, for example, plug The Mysterious Stranger into your analysis, or his outspoken disgust with late 19th century American and European foreign policies, colonialism, imperialism, etc.? Thanks much, Steve Crawford School of Cultural Studies Jyväskylä University of Applied Sciences