Who is Mark Twain?
By MARK TWAIN
When Mark Twain died in 1910, he left behind a large collection of unpublished material. The editor, Robert Hirst, explains in the introduction to this book that Samuel Langhorne Clemens would not have "been embarrassed" by the publication of manuscripts that he chose not to submit in his lifetime. One wonders if this conclusion would be true of all the articles in Who Is Mark Twain?

After his death, his official biographer, Albert Paine, and Twain's daughter Clara edited and published a few. Paine's successor, Bernard DeVoto, published several dozen, those he considered the best of the lot. Today's reader may consider why the selections included here have languished all this time. Hirst says, "The 24 collected here represent an across-the-board sampling from different genres and different time periods, weighted slightly toward pieces that can stand more or less on their own, without much explanation."

In any case, who can resist the ironic humor of Mark Twain? He loved taking on "the establishment" and the egoist. Although the years since these pieces were written may obscure for the modern reader some of the political references, the tone and many comments ring true and funny today. In "On Postage Rates on Authors' Manuscripts," (Hirst supplied the title), Twain says, "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."

Twain was a doubter, and often said unkind things about organized religion, including missionaries. In what seems to be an unsent letter to the New York Times, he protests, "We have lacked the opportunity of hearing a foreign missionary who has been forced upon us against our will lauding his own saints and gods and saying harsh things about ours. If, some time or other, we shall have these experiences, it will probably go hard with the missionary."

A very short selection is called (again by Hirst) "The Devil's Gate." Miners had named this gorge in the Sierra Nevadas, but some people were upset about the name. "The miners called a meeting -- nothing is done in California without calling a meeting about it. There must be a free, open, expression of opinion. In old times they always called a meeting, even when they were going to lynch a man who needed the most salutary and immediate hanging." (You'll have to read the book to find out if they changed the name of the gorge.)

Who Is Mark Twain? is available at the Mary Willis Library.