Jumping frogs, high society, San Francisco's Emperor Norton and the stray dogs that followed on his heels-nothing escaped Mark Twain's scrutiny or his acerbic wit. Bernard Taper has gathered together a heady selection of newspaper articles, correspondence, poetry, and short stories that are humorous-sometimes exasperating and controversial-but always engaging. Edward Jump, a contemporary of Twain's, offers through his lively illustrations a visual drum roll to Twain's cantankerous prose. From earthquakes, scandals, and tantalizing bonanzas to elegant ladies blowing their noses in "exquisitely modulated tones," Mark Twain has left us a vision of San Francisco that is at once fascinating and hilariously familiar.

Written with wit, insight, and candor, Balanchine is a book that will delight lovers of biography as well as those with a special interest in dance. For this edition the author has added a thoughtful yet dramatic account of the working out of Balanchine's legacy, from the making of his controversial will to the present day. The author explores the intriguing legal, financial, and institutional subplots that unfolded after the death of the greatest choreographer of the century, but the central plot of his epilogue is the aesthetic issue: In the absence of their creator, can the ballets retain their wondrous vitality? Taper illuminates the fascinating transmission of Balanchine's masterworks from one generation to another, an unprecented legacy in the history of ballet, that most evanescent of the arts.