I just had a surprising Mark Twain experience. Many of you probably already knew this, but I didn't. A cousin sent me a book which had belonged to my grandfather. The cover and title page were missing. He attached a note saying, "Roughing It" and I thought it was a marvelous coincidence since I'd been thumbing through that book lately. However, I was puzzled. The preface, completely unfunny, was written by Mark Twain, in Hartford 1876. Was he speaking of himself in the third person? The extremely brief preface, which was funny, was simply signed "the author." Still pleased with myself having, even if disabled, a first edition of - Roughing It-, I moved on to the next pages. The list of illustrations and table of contents was totally unfamiliar. So I googled the first chapter heading and learned the book actually was -History of the big bonanza- (small caps intentional) by Dan DeQuille! I savored that one sentence preface: "I have put all I had to say into the body of this book; but being informed that a preface is a necessary evil, I have written this one. The Author." I still can't quite get over how straight forward and unamusing the Introductory was. Arianne Laidlaw