The Mark Twain Forum needs a reviewer for the following book: Quirk, Tom. _Mark Twain: A Study of the Short Fiction_. (Twayne's Studies in Short Fiction, 66.) New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997. Pp. xiv + 232. Bibliography, index. Cloth, 5-3/4" x 8-3/4". $29.00. ISBN 0-8057-0867-7. The jacket reads: Tom Quirk's study provides a comprehensive analysis of the comic genius and narrative originality that makes Mark Twain's short fiction a cornerstone of the American literary tradition. Quirk's presentation of Twain's career as a writer of short fiction is complemented with selections of Twain's essays on writing. A collection of important critical essays rounds out this balanced and informative work. In part 1, Quirk examines Twain's career from the time Samuel Clemens adopted his pen name, in 1863, until the time of his death in 1910. Within this frame, Quirk traces three creative periods: Twain's early years, during which he made a name for himself as a teller of tall tales with a talent for frontier humor; his middle years, during which he approached more serious themes and emerged as a prominent literary figure; and finally Quirk reassesses what has been called Twain's "bad mood" period and argues for the persistence of Twain's remarkable literary gift, even in those final years filled with cynicism and despair. Quirk's aim in _Mark Twain: A Study of the Short Fiction_ is to provide a "descriptive account of Twain's imaginative energies and his literary development as they are revealed in his short fiction." His selections of Twain's writing provide excellent examples of the literary energy that Quirk so vividly describes. In "How To Tell a Story," among other essays in part 2, Twain reveals his own understanding of the literary process and his intentions as a writer. The six critical essays reprinted in part 3 offer a range of perspectives, from Twain's contemporary, William Dean Howells, to the eminent Twain scholar Louis J. Budd and other current scholars in the field [Don Florence, Walter Blair, Gregg Camfield, and Susan K. Harris]. Quirk draws a portrait of Twain as an imaginative "conjurer," exposing the blend of spontaneity and craftsmanship that characterizes Mark Twain's short fiction. He convincingly argues that the short fiction clearly reveals the depths of Twain's emotions and the range of his concerns. With lucid and lively prose, _Mark Twain_ for the first time gives students, scholars, and Twain enthusiasts a comprehensive study of this "distinctively native art form": Twain's short fiction. About the author: Tom Quirk is professor of English at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is the author of _Melville's Confidence Man_ (1982), _Bergson and American Culture: The Worlds of Willa Cather and Wallace Stevens_ (1990), and _Coming to Grips with Huckleberry Finn_ (1994) [reviewed for the _Forum_ by David Tomlinson, 5 June 1994], among other works. He is a contributor to _American Literature_, _Studies in American Humor_, _Prospects_, and other journals. As usual, the review must be of publishable quality, and it would be due within two months of your receipt of the book (i.e., due mid-April 1999). The deadline is particularly important, as we are making every effort for Forum reviews to appear before print reviews. If you are inclined to procrastinate, please don't offer to review the book. If you would like to see the general content and style of Forum book reviews, feel free to browse the archive of reviews, which are available at TwainWeb: http://web.mit.edu/linguistics/www/forum/ If you're interested in writing a review, please send me both your home and institutional mailing addresses and phone numbers. If I don't know you already, it would be helpful for you to explain in what respect you're qualified to write the review. (If we haven't exchanged e-mail recently, it might be a good idea for you to remind me of this info.) I look forward to hearing from you. Taylor Roberts Book review editor, Mark Twain Forum