The session "Mark Twain in the 90s" was held Friday morning at the 20th anniversary meeting of the Philological Association of the Carolinas on the campus of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, SC. The session was organized on the Mark Twain Forum, with all three participants being forum members. Several people asked for a summary post, so here goes! Terry Oggel of Virginia Commonwealth University was first with a paper entitled "Twain, Zola, and the Writer in Public Discourse." Terry argued quite convincingly that Mark Twain's five-year outburst of public discourse from 1900 to 1905 was affected by Emile Zola's "J'Accuse" letter in the Dreyfus affair. He set forth a full chain of events, including Twain's knowledge of and interest in the famous letter. Rather than arguing that Zola was a direct influence on Twain, Terry posited that Zola served Twain as a model for a writer using his literary reputation for public comment. Terry cited several Twain works, including _The Czar's Soliloquy and _The United States of Lyncherdom._ His argument is more subtle than I can render in a short digest, so I hope he will eventually publish some version of this for others to read. Next was Miriam Shillingsburg of Mississippi State University, with a paper entitled "The Influential Mr. Blank." Miriam is attempting to solve a puzzle from Mark Twain's Australasia tour, documented in _Following the Equator_. The puzzle involves the identity of a person called "Mr. Blank" in that book, an Irishman who takes credit for everything that happens to Twain in the town of Bendigo, Australia. The evidence and chronology is complicated, including a faked Mark Twain funeral in Melbourne set up by an imposter and a Mark Twain Club that met in Ireland in the 1870s. At this point, Mirian suspects one Frank Hearn of being Mr. Blank, and some historical and textual evidence she presented points to him. I was especially convinced by her mention of mumerous puns on "frank" in the text. But to make sure, she was leaving from the Charlotte airport immediately after our session to travel to Bendigo for further research. (What a pleasant research task!) I found this to be a fun and funny paper. Last was Barbara W. Taylor of the Cornell University Law Library. Her paper, Olivia Clemens' Influence Considered," was an insightful look at Olivia Clemens' education, tracing carefully her life-long devotion to learning. I was especially impressed by the depth of Livy's education in science. Jervis Langdon was very concerned that Livy receive the most up-to-date education possible, and he sent her to a very progressive school in Elmira. Barbara's paper traced Livy's education into her early married years, when she devoted herself to learning financial mamgement, personnel management, and French and German, up until 1879, when she began to devote more of her energy to the children's education. Barbara's paper was a help in a further understanding of Olivia and her influence on Samuel Clemens. The session was well-attended (12 or so at an early session), and a lively question and discussion period followed. I was glad to have the opportunity to chair the session and meet fellow Mark Twain Forum members.