I especially enjoyed Hal Holbrook's comments. Holbrook, of course, is famous for his remarkable one-man shows in which he plays Twain. Ken Burns, in the final minutes of his PBS special, discussed the decision not to have Holbrook read passages from Twain's writings: he said that having someone else do the readings freed Burns to interview Holbrook without confusing the viewer. I don't know if I would have been confused, but I was not impressed with most of the readings that were done by the other actor (I don't recall his name; he's a character actor).

Hal Holbrook's comments, however, were riveting to me because of the depth and intimacy of character study that Holbrook has done in order to make audiences believe that Twain is actually there on stage before them, still living and breathing and cracking wise. His portrayal and his commentary make it clear that Holbrook knows Twain as no scholar knows him, as perhaps no one else alive today knows him.

Does anyone know if Hal Holbrook has written anything about Twain, or about his own experiences portraying Twain?