Fairest Picture is the book Mark Twain fans and Lake Tahoe enthusiasts have longed for. For the first time, a single volume brings together Mark Twain and his favorite lake, Lake Tahoe. Inside you will find little known facts and newly discovered information about Mark Twain's experiences and adventures at Lake Tahoe that cannot be found in any other books or on the web. You will read about Mark Twain's Lake Tahoe of the early 1860s, how it is different today and still the same in many ways. We solve the riddle of where Mark Twain was camped and located his timber claim on the North Shore, exactly as he told the story in Roughing It and letters home. We describe Mark Twain's subsequent trips to Lake Tahoe as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise and locate the hotels where he stayed and what he did while he was here as a tourist. We provide maps and directions to 12 Mark Twain places at Lake Tahoe and the surrounding area so that scholars and enthusiasts can visit these sites, see what Mark Twain saw and experience the same feelings that inspired him to write so eloquently about the lake. Inside is a complete listing of all known Mark Twain quotations about Lake Tahoe in his writings and lectures together with interpretation and context. We closely examine and debunk the many myths and tall tales about Mark Twain at Lake Tahoe and in particular, the often repeated East Shore timber claim legend. Readers will have a much deeper appreciation Mark Twain and the Lake Tahoe region, a place where he found his voice as a writer and humorist and went on to become one of America's greatest authors.

Snowball's Chance: The Story of the 1960 Olympic Winter Games is the only book devoted solely to chronicling the historic events at Squaw Valley and Lake Tahoe. The VIII Olympic Winter Games took place in February 1960 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. From 30 countries around the world, 665 athletes gathered over 11 days to engage in five recognized Olympic winter sports contested in 27 events. These sports and events included alpine skiing, Nordic combined, cross-country skiing, biathlon, figure skating, speed skating, ice hockey and ski jumping. You-are-there accounts of all competition events with top scores and medal results for each sport are included. Readers will learn about the extensive pageantry and artistic expression of the opening and closing ceremonies produced by the legendary Walt Disney. The 200-page book includes 80-plus photographs by official photographer Bill Briner and others showing historic Olympic venues and athletes in the heat of competition.