BRIEFLY NOTED: _Ira Fistell's Mark Twain: Three Encounters_. By Ira Fistell. Xlibris Corporation, 2012. Softcover. ISBN 978-1-4691-7870-7. $23.99. A former long-time radio and TV personality well known in Los Angeles for his interest in Mark Twain, Ira Fistell credits Charles Neider's 1985 book, _Papa: An Intimate Biography of Mark Twain by Susy Clemens_ as the creative spark behind his new book, in which he describes himself as a "devoted amateur" in Mark Twain studies (p. viii). That is a pose he sustains throughout his entire book. Fistell does not reveal exactly when he wrote his book, but most of it has the appearance of having been composed before 1995. Its bibliography and footnotes cite nothing published since 1992--except a single 1994 newspaper article--and no authoritative texts of Mark Twain's major works published at any time. Apart from remarks in a chapter about modern Hannibal, the text is generally oblivious to events and scholarly developments of the past two decades. _Mark Twain: Three Encounters_ comprises three major sections. The first contains Fistell's critical analyses of several major Mark Twain works. Perhaps the book's most interesting section, this part offers some novel theories, such as the idea that Mark Twain wrote _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ as a satire on America under President Chester A. Arthur's administration (1881-85). The second section describes Fistell's personal reactions to the various Mark Twain sites he visited over what appears to have been a very long time. This section pays little attention to recent developments at most of the sites. The third section of Fistell's book is certain to become the most controversial portion. Here Fistell theorizes that Mark Twain may have had an "incestuous" relationship with his daughter Susy that helps explain the persona of guilt that characterized his last years. This argument is diluted by Fistell's vagueness on the precise nature of that father-daughter sexual relationship, which he admits may not have been physical. Moreover, he calls his theory "dime store psychology, resting on the flimsiest of evidence and the most imaginative of surmises" (p. 302). He even goes further: "There is, of course, no evidence at all to support this surmise. In its absence, I have fallen back on creative imagination ..." (p. 309). One error is important to note only because it is prominently used to advance Fistell's unfounded theories. After Susy's death Mark Twain wrote comparing his loss to that of Aaron Burr who had lost his own daughter Theodosia in 1812. Fistell asserts that Twain almost certainly knew that Burr had been accused of incest with Theodosia. However, there is no evidence such an accusation against Burr was made in Mark Twain's lifetime. In 1973 Gore Vidal created the accusation against Burr as a plot device in his novel _Burr_, a work of fiction based on history.