My New Century Dictionary, 3 huge volumes, published in 1927 does not contain the word 'racist', which, I fear, is one of those convenience words to be thrown out on those occasions a speaker finds unpleasing. For example, when asked to read and compare The Autobiography of Ben Franklin and the Autobiography of Malcom X. one of my younger students replied that 'he wasn't going to read anything by a fat, white racist'. I hope this is not taken as a simple quibble, but as a gentle tug at the collective sleeve to suggest that, if we judge writers with an ex-post-facto term, we are probably moving a bit too hastily. Judged in terms of his own time Twain was a good man who did not live happily beside human frailty, not even his own. Jack Cady Pacific Lutheran University