Ron O, you were right, of course. Part Two did emphasize the tragedies and difficulties in Twain's later years. Poignant and sad.

I now want to read or see something on Mark Twain with a different emphasis. I realize that his books of the later period are biting commentary and show his disappointment in the human race but good things also happened to him during those years, i.e., he did have his own home again, with a faithful attendant and his surviving daughter did come home when he was in his last decline.

The repeated emphasis on Twain loving attention, I thought, was unnecessary and a little stabbing. After being in self-exile for 9 years and having lost most of what he considered essential in his life, it does not surprise me that he luxuriated in adulation, at the same time that he didn't 'cut his cloth' to suit his audience; as the documentary said, he continued his commentary on the human condition, including his own.

In the TV documentary I don't quite understand the view given of his daughter Clara- and I thought the comment on when she got married: "the honeymoon couple immediately left for Europe" was disingenuous, this after showing a photo of the wedding party with Twain draped in his honorary robes. How can we possibly know what correlation there was between the two events?

She wrote movingly of her father after his death- one would never guess that she, as the document implies, was estranged from her father.

All that said, I really enjoyed the documentary. I think Mark Twain's own statement sums it up: I am the human race in one person.

As are we all.

Ebbie