There's no one quite like Mark Twain for poking irreverent fun at everything - and he's at it again with this collection of essays, speeches, letters, and personal accounts. Twain begins, in "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses", by listing 18 of them and going on to debunk the Pathfinder's woodsmanship. "Punch-Brother-Punch" recounts how a memorable jingle nearly drives the author over the edge, and in "An Author's Soldiering" we learn how Twain saved the Union. Also included are "The Art of Authorship", "First Interview with Artemus Ward", "To the California Pioneers", "The Great Landslide Case", "Political Economy", "Experience of the McWilliamses with Membranous Croup", and "The McWilliamses and the Burglar Alarm".