The Statesman and the Storyteller

by Mark Zwonitzer,
The Minneapolis Star Tribune, May 24, 2016

At a dinner held in his honor on Nov. 28, 1902, Mark Twain was seated next to his old friend John Hay. Twain reminded Hay, who like him had grown up in a small town near the Mississippi River, of a conversation they had had some 40 years earlier. In his characteristic matter-of-fact manner, Hay had prophesied that in all likelihood, the rest of their lives would be a tragedy. Twain had vigorously disagreed. Did he care to weigh in again? Hay asked.