On February 18, the _New York Times_ featured a positive book review by Brenda Wineapple of Harry Katz's _Mark Twain's America_. The link to that review is http://nyti.ms/17qnGFi One might question Wineapple's objectivity in light of the fact she is or was on the advisory board of _Lapham's Quarterly_ and Lapham did provide the Foreword for the Katz book. However, praising the work of close colleagues is not uncommon in book reviews, and one always hopes that objectivity is achievable. Aside from questionable objectivity, what is most troubling about Wineapple's review is her suggestion that facts are no longer important when errors are presented alongside pretty pictures that make up an attractive coffee table book. She writes, "But the book is more notable for its many visual documents than the facts of Twain's life, which are readily available elsewhere." "Facts ... readily available elsewhere" is a strange pardon coming from a book reviewer -- perhaps the most compassionate case of literary forgiveness I have ever read anywhere. Moreover, how valuable are illustrations that are incorrectly identified or captioned? Wineapple mentions a picture of Susan B. Anthony but fails to notice that the picture's caption alludes to Anthony's having run for president of the United States. Wineapple calls the massive amount of copyright infringement and plagiarism in the book "missing attributions." However, it is unlikely that she had the privilege of comparing side-by-side the source material from Kent Rasmussen's _Mark Twain A to Z_ and James Trager's _The People's Chronology_ (Henry Holt, 1994). Until the Library of Congress revealed the latter source, the literary executor of Trager's book had asked to remain unidentified for the time being. Well over 200 entries from Trager were duplicated. In spite of Wineapple's issuing the Library of Congress a "get out of jail free" card, the legacy of plagiarism and errors this book leaves behind is not a pretty one. Barbara Schmidt