A very brief response to the thread so far. I agree with Michael, that we need not do a character assassination of the author. That was certainly not my own intent. As for the word "screed": my understanding of it includes the sense of a long and windy type of essay, sort of a diatribe. Diatribe would suggest its abusive nature, though I'm not sure screed is so specific. In any case: with all due respect, yes, I still think that piece was long, monotonous, and rather abusive. No doubt the author makes some valid points about MT's unevenness as a writer, his hurry sometimes to publish, etc. I also think it is fair to say (and admit) that most of what is in Volume One has already been published, despite the widespread rumor that it has all been hidden away in a vault for a century, by MT's orders (Personally, I've been stopped in the halls several times the past couple of weeks to explain this point). And Michael is correct to remind us to beware of any sort of Twain fundamentalism: yes, some of those points are valid, even indisputable. So what? All great artists make major blunders; We do not remember Melville for "Clarel," and nobody reads FANSHAWE anymore, or listens to EMPIRE BURLESQUE (except maybe lonely drivers on long car trips who find a copy under the seat). But I think it is just fine for any of us to disagree and give a counter-argument: that we see, for instance, a much greater and finer writer, perhaps not all the time, but enough to know that a bitter dismissal of the full range of MT as overhyped imposter and/or as a deeply flawed artistry just does not ring true. I certainly hope a few folks on here take the time to write the New Yorker and say something like that. I certainly enjoyed the little fragment (with no editorial comment) from Bob Hirst: Some people, it is true, just do not quite get Yosemite. I was mesmerized the first time I gaped at those walls of granite--and look forward to returning in the future. Similarly, I've heard many people say very nasty and (in my mind) quite stupid things about, say, Florence or Paris. Having been lucky to spend a semester in Florence, those accounts based on a bad cafe experience or a long line at a museum sounded ludicrous to my ears. As MT reminded us in several places, many tourists never quite "see" the places in which they are traveling. -- 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>