Mark Twain and I

I have a certain fondness for Mark Twain.

And it's not about his moustache, though I do find it fetching.

I like his sense of humor. I've tried at times in my own writing to be humorous.

I like his satire. I've tried at times in my own writing to be satirical.

And I understand his darker cynicism about the human race. I struggle with that tendency in myself.

Something that helps me deal with it is my faith, and the model of St. Francis. I don't have the sense that Twain was so blessed.

Over the years I've enjoyed his works. I've been entertained by novels like Huckleberry Finn and Joan of Arc, for example, and some of his essays and short stories.

There are other works of his I have not yet read - but would like to do so. That says a lot about him. There are some writers who are considered great in some way and in their particular genres, whom I've read because they were "greats," and whom I have no desire to read more of unless I have to. Tennessee Williams, Tolstoy, and William Faulkner come to mind.

But Twain joins writers like and Chesterton, Dostoyevsky, Frost, and Dickens on my "I-want-to-read-more" list.

Besides, there is that moustache.

Pax et bonum