This series presents the life and work of major composers. The narrated recording is illustrated with quotations from the composer and his contemporaries, and enhanced by extended extracts from representative musical works. In the companion booklet are essays and notes on the composer and his times.

Though Mark Twain is best remembered as perhaps the quintessential American humor writer, he was also a keen observer and critic of cultural and social trends. In this vein, he undertook a book-length discussion and analysis of Christian Science and New Thought, both of which enjoyed immense popularity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in the United States. The controversial text was originally rejected by Twain's publisher, a gesture