Word: twain
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...entries in George Bernard Shaw's four-volume, 76-year-long correspondence present the master playwright bombinating into old age, dispensing unsolicited advice on every aspect of modern life from the flaws of the cinema to the indignities of sex. The first of a projected 20 volumes of Mark Twain's letters follows the literary apprentice -- at first still using his real name, Samuel Clemens -- as he flees Hannibal, Mo., to become a river pilot, then a journalist covering the gold-intoxicated frontiers of Nevada and California...
...surface the two writers, separated by time and culture, seem wholly unrelated. The American is a sensual naif; the Anglo-Irishman is a sophisticated puritan. Twain is happy for small favors; Shaw is ungrateful for major rewards. Presented with the 1925 Nobel Prize for Literature, Shaw informs the Royal Swedish Academy that their award is a "lifebelt thrown to a swimmer who has already reached the shore in safety." Shaw's dramas brim with advocates of free thought and liberal policy, but his correspondence reveals him as a fool of the new totalitarians. Adolf Hitler is a "wonderful preacher...
...third interview with Nixon, at his home in Saddle River, N.J. (I had been there once before at a dinner last spring), that in fact I had always thought of Nixon as a comic character, a dark and serious American comic character, like someone out of Twain. Comic in the Checkers speech. Comic in the "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore" farewell following his defeat in the California gubernatorial election in 1962. In the clownish 5 o'clock shadow of the first Nixon-Kennedy television debate. In the "I am not a crook" protest. Lighting fires...
...witness the ugliness of sudden death among the "disconnected." Summer arrives and the devoted twain have split for 16 weeks. But home is where the sweetheart is--phonecalls shorten and letters become scarce. Finally, at the advice of a high school friend, an ex-romantic just hangs up at the hint of a whining, "Hello?" Warning signs: click, buzzzzzz...
...seemed poised to knock Bush out in only the first round of the primary season. But during the final weekend before the New Hampshire vote, Bush's workers launched a brilliant offensive that rescued their man's candidacy. "I feel that I have a lot in common with Mark Twain," said Bush, who appeared more relieved than excited after beating Dole, 37% to 28%. "Reports of my death were greatly exaggerated." Said Deputy Campaign Manager Rich Bond: "I think we've got a candidate who's been through the fire and toughened...