Twain on the Cover of Time

It takes a hell of a man to make the cover of Time magazine after being dead for 98 years, but Sam is just the guy to do it. America's great literary genius is featured front and center this week in the nation's premiere news periodical.

Much of the issue is devoted to Twain. There's some very interesting commentary on the way he originated the concept of the American funnyman-as-political commentator, a role filled today by the likes of John Stewart, Bill Maher and Dennis Miller. There are also discussions of Twain's pioneering views on race and his prophetic opposition to political correctness, epitomized by the controversial essay "The United States of Lyncherdom", which wasn't even published in unedited form until 2000.

Now that's a man who knew how to piss people off.