this AUTOBIOGRAPHY is rather astonishing. bravo, MT Project folks, esp. Bob and Harriet!! a great comment on its style and content—and on the sheer audacity of Twain’s theory and method of autobiography--is captured in a small snippet: Twain’s encounter one day with his friend John Hay, former secretary of Abraham Lincoln and then author of a ten-volume biography of the slain president. Hay gave him his theory, in effect: “each fact and each fiction will be a dab of paint, each will fall into its right place, and together they will paint his portrait; not the portrait he thinks they are painting, but his real portrait, the inside of him, the soul of him, his character. Without intending to lie he will lie all the time. . . . consciousness in twilight; a soft and merciful twilight which makes his general form comely, with his virtuous prominences and projections discernible and his ungracious ones in shadow. His truths will be recognizable as truths, his modifications of facts which would tell against him will go for nothing, the reader will see the fact through the film and know the man. There is a subtle devilish something or other about autobiographical composition that defeats all thte writer’s attempts to paint his portrait *his* way." (223-4) This is great stuff and I'm wondering now about other places that MT's connection with Hay is addressed -- I do not recall much about this friendship but having just spent massive efforts on Lincoln it is now very intriguing to me. I think Hay is discussed in Paine's biography, but also cannot recall seeing this anecdote in other editions but my memory is not what it used to be. -- 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>