United States

The July 14th edition of Time (yes, I’m way behind in my reading) celebrated Mark Twain as part of its “Making of America” series, with an introduction by Richard Stengel, and articles by Richard Lacayo, Roy Blount, Jr., Jackson Dykman, and Stephen L. Carter.

Whether Twin was talking about racism at home, the foreign misadventures of the Western powers or excesses of the era of greed he initially flourished in after the Civil War, his target was always human folly and hypocrisy, which turn out to be perennial topics for further study. – from “America’s Original Superstar,” by Roy Blount Jr., Time