Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith are both members of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Few things, as Pudd'nhead observed, are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example, and this building collection of the letters is horribly, excruciatingly good. It sets standards of diligence that will cause future editors of writers' letters to weep."-Jonathan Raban, Times Literary Supplement "One of the most important collections of letters by an American author... admirably organized and set forth as to become a source of wonder to general readers and delight to advanced students of literary history"-Genevieve Stuttaford, Publishers Weekly "One of the great scholarly enterprises of the century. Since the 1970s the... members of the Mark Twain Project at the University of California have been turning out magnificent editions of the writer's letters, notebooks, travel narratives and fiction. If you want to enjoy, and to understand fully, the genius of Mark Twain, the California editions are the only texts to have."-Michael Shelden, London Telegraph

Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith are both members of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Few things, as Pudd'nhead observed, are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example, and this building collection of the letters is horribly, excruciatingly good. It sets standards of diligence that will cause future editors of writers' letters to weep."-Jonathan Raban, Times Literary Supplement "One of the most important collections of letters by an American author... admirably organized and set forth as to become a source of wonder to general readers and delight to advanced students of literary history"-Genevieve Stuttaford, Publishers Weekly "One of the great scholarly enterprises of the century. Since the 1970s the... members of the Mark Twain Project at the University of California have been turning out magnificent editions of the writer's letters, notebooks, travel narratives and fiction. If you want to enjoy, and to understand fully, the genius of Mark Twain, the California editions are the only texts to have."-Michael Shelden, London Telegraph

Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith are both members of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley.

"Few things, as Pudd'nhead observed, are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example, and this building collection of the letters is horribly, excruciatingly good. It sets standards of diligence that will cause future editors of writers' letters to weep."-Jonathan Raban, Times Literary Supplement "One of the most important collections of letters by an American author... admirably organized and set forth as to become a source of wonder to general readers and delight to advanced students of literary history"-Genevieve Stuttaford, Publishers Weekly "One of the great scholarly enterprises of the century. Since the 1970s the... members of the Mark Twain Project at the University of California have been turning out magnificent editions of the writer's letters, notebooks, travel narratives and fiction. If you want to enjoy, and to understand fully, the genius of Mark Twain, the California editions are the only texts to have."-Michael Shelden, London Telegraph