Mark Twain's New, 100-year-old Autobiography (On The Media: Friday, 19 November 2010) from On The Media by onthemedia@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

There has been much ado lately over the release of Mark Twain's autobiography after a century-long embargo. But with only a small portion of the material in fact never-before-published, is this merely deft brand management by Twain from beyond the grave? Writer Craig Fehrman describes the tactics behind the embargo and how it has worked well as a modern day marketing strategy.

Download the podcast here. See also: The Complete Mark Twain Collection (Over 300 works, with active table of contents), Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human Race, Classic American Literature: The Works of Mark Twain, 24 books in a single file, improved 10/6/2010

Mark Twain And Science: It's Complicated from NPR: Science Friday Podcast

Did you know Mark Twain tried his hand at science fiction? In the book The Disappearing Spoon, author Sam Kean writes about Twain's prescient story "Sold to Satan." In the story, Satan’s problems stem, in part, from the fact that he is made entirely of the newly discovered radioactive element radium.

Download the podcast here. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette had this to say about the book:

If I only knew where to get me some gallium, I could hoodwink my tea-drinking mother. See, as Sam Kean writes in his recent book, "The Disappearing Spoon and Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements" (Little Brown, 2010, $24), gallium is solid at typical room temperature. But leave it out on a moderate summer day (84 degrees) and it'll melt. "It's one of the few liquid metals you can touch without boiling your finger to the bone," he writes. "As a result, gallium has been a staple of practical jokes among the chemistry cognoscenti... One popular trick, since gallium molds easily and looks like aluminum, is to fashion gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch as your guests recoil when their Earl Grey 'eats' their utensils."

Read that full story, feature here. See also: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Science of Familiar Things, Fire in the Belly: On Being a Man

*Autobiography of Mark Twain, vol. I* from Marginal Revolution by Tyler Cowen

[Excerpt:] Finally, in Florence in 1904, I hit upon the right way to do an Autobiography: start it at no particular time of your life; wander at your free will all over your life' talk only about the thing which interests you at the moment; drop it the moment its interest threatens to pale, and turn your talk upon the new and more interesting thing that has intruded itself into your mind meantime. Also, make the narrative a combined Diary and Autobiography. In this way you have the vivid things of the present to make a contrast with memories of like things in the past, and these contrasts have a charm which is all their own. No talent is required to make a combined Diary and Autobiography interesting. And so, I have found the right plan. It makes my labor amusement -- mere amusement, play, pastime, and wholly effortless. It is the first time in history that the right plan has been hit upon. I spent about ninety minutes browsing this new book, but found it only moderately interesting, with more emphasis on the "moderately" than the "interesting." If you're obsessed with Twain, you'll find it worth the $20, but the above paragraphs sum up the main problem with the text.

You can catch the rest of this at Marginal Revolution.

Mark Twain And Science: It's Complicated from NPR Podcast Science Friday

Did you know Mark Twain tried his hand at science fiction? In the book The Disappearing Spoon, author Sam Kean writes about Twain's prescient story "Sold to Satan." In the story, Satan’s problems stem, in part, from the fact that he is made entirely of the newly discovered radioactive element radium.

Listen to the podcast here, or download the file here.