wishing i could scribble for a living.

Just in case you didn’t know, in August of 1869, thirty-three-year-old Samuel Clemens – or as he was later known, MARK TWAIN moved to Buffalo, New York. Um, that’s where I live! Mark Twain is one of my all-time favorite authors. I borrow his words often because he was so damn brilliant and insightful. Anyways, THE Mark Twain spent 18 whole months here in Buffalo, and Thomas J. Reigstad tells us all about it in Scribblin’ for a Livin': Mark Twain’s Pivotal Period in Buffalo.

Author, and long-time Buffalo State College professor, Reigstad, now retired, is Buffalo's definitive "Twain expert" and he shares with us his research and extremely hard work in this very readable history of Twain's time living in Buffalo from 1869-1871. A lot happened in Twain’s life during his year and a half in Western New York. Twain arrived in Buffalo in mid-August 1869 as a bachelor and left as a married man with an infant son. He arrived as an enthusiastic co-editor and co-owner of a newspaper and left as a man who would never practice journalism again. Other Twain biographers wrote Buffalo off, while Reigstad did an excellent job uncovering truth to the myths others have missed.