November 14, 2004

The Concord Museum in Concord, Massachusetts, is hosting a grand literary tour of the homes of 21 American authors, including Twain, through revealing photographs and rare manuscripts. Please visit www.concordmuseum.org for more info.

November 8, 2004

This year is the 135th anniversary of Mark Twain's appearance in Buffalo as the co-editor of the Buffalo Express. Celebrating that anniversary at the Lancaster Opera House on Sunday afternoon, Twain impersonator Mike Randall, a self-confessed "Twain-iac" and a popular humorist in his own right, conjured up the much-beloved writer, the "Lincoln of Literature" - right down to snowy walrus-mustache and cigar detail, to mark Buffalo's place in America's literary history.

"His Buffalo period was very important," Randall stresses before his performance. "This area and that period, 1869 to 1871, was a turning point for Mark Twain. He evolved quite quickly from being the "Wild Humorist of the Pacific Slopes,' into the upstanding husband, father, author and co-editor of the Buffalo Express - what is considered by many to be his last roll-up-the-sleeves, go-to-work "real' job.

For more information, please visit the article in the Buffalo News at http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20041108/1065104.asp. "Here's a man who, with one