I was born and raised in Northern California, where I graduated from the University of California with a major in the dismal science. Afterward, I moved to Southern California, where I have lived ever since. At UCLA, I earned a doctorate in African history. Although my teaching career in that field was regrettably brief, I have nevertheless published five books on Africa and have a sixth book I hope eventually to finish, even it means eBook publication. Along the way, I got into editing work and eventually became a reference book editor. (If you search my name in Amazon books, many of the titles that come up will be reference works I edited. I also edited even more that aren't listed under my name.) Around 1990, my life took an unexpected turn when I renewed my youthful interest in Mark Twain by deciding to read everything he wrote. To give my reading focus, I collected interesting passages from Mark Twain's work with the idea of publishing a quote collection with the reference-book publisher for whom I had written a book on Zimbabwe. I am now astonished to realize that I have published twelve books on Mark Twain--with two more in progress--and have something of a reputation of an authority in Mark Twain studies. How did that happen? I'm not completely sure, but it has certainly made my life more interesting. I'm revising this note in late 2017, when I'm seven years away from retirement from my editing job. At the moment, I'm immersed in researching a book on film adaptations of Mark Twain's writings--something quite different from my earlier books. I'm not sure what will come next, but I'm still hoping the best is yet to come.
