List: Barbara Schmidt strikes again! What an excellent, incisive, and deeply informative review-- this is precisely the kind of reviewing that makes me proud to be on this Forum. thanks, Barb, great job. Schmidt here presents a devastating critique of Trombley's book, with excellent additional comments about and comparisons with Michael Shelden's own "even-handed" approach; plus useful tidbits about and comparisons with the Lystra book. The entire Lyon affair (no pun intended) is tawdry, murky, and hard to pin down, so I still have not got all the conclusions straight. But what makes Schmidt's account here so valuable is that she provides in the short space of a review all of the relevant differences between these 3 biographers, and allows her readers to compare and draw their own conclusions--or, at least, to know what the issues are, and what is at stake. Most intriguing (for me, anyway) is Schmidt's implication that Trombley's championing of Lyon and her story has its roots in some sort of feminine bias--or, the opposite: that anti-feminist bias has not allowed "objective" critics of the past to listen to Lyon's version of the events. ~ finally, More congratulations to Barbara Schmidt! her work on the Forum is easily overlooked, but her judgment in all things Twain is impeccable indeed!! -- Harold K. Bush, Ph.D Professor of English Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h) <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>