'Who Is Mark Twain?'

Although I'm rather tired of Twain (nearing end of the Powers biography), this seems interesting.









Mark Twain, photographed in 1901, sitting on the deck of a ship.












In "Happy Memories of the Dental Chair," a piece in the new book, Twain describes his dentist: "He was gray and venerable, and humane of aspect; but he had the calm, possessed, surgical look of a man who could endure pain in another person."

Robert Miller, publisher of HarperStudio, said the hardcover edition has a print run of 16,500 copies. "Twain's the grandfather of Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart and Steve Martin," said Mr. Miller. "He has such a dry, subversive wit that you feel like he's invented modern humor."