ABSTRACT
More than any other classic American writer, Mark Twain assumes the proportions of a folk myth. Samuel Clemens enjoyed the role assigned him by his own generation; because he liked acting a part, he dramatized his own life history by mingling actuality with fiction. John Camden Hotten’s account of Twain’s life appeared in 1873. Hotten quoted liberally from Twain’s own account of his activities, especially from Roughing It, to outline the career of a popular humorist and successful entertainer. While vacationing in Bermuda, Elizabeth Wallace, a schoolteacher, met Mark Twain during his final years; she later visited at Stormfield and corresponded with him. Mark Twain, Business Man contains newly published letters from Twain in Nevada, some in a more gloomy mood than is generally associated with him at that period, because as Webster explains, the optimistic letters had already been published.
