Mark Twain's Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness. Collected and edited by Mark Dawidziak.
Prospect Park Books

Tired of diet plans, exercise regiments, investment tips, beauty suggestions and romantic advice that take you down the wrong path? Try Mark Twain's road to happiness. You probably won't end up slimmer, fitter, richer, more stylish or luckier in love, but you will have a great time in the company of the writer who understood, "We can't reach old age by another man's road. My habits protect my life, but they would assassinate you." Then again, you just might die laughing considering the the mirthful maxims and wacky witticisms in Mark Twain's Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness: A Politically Incorrect Self-Help Book from America's Greatest Humorist, a breezy, lighthearted collection compiled by Twain scholar and performer Mark Dawidziak.

About Mark Dawidziak: Television critic at the Cleveland Plain Dealer since 1999, Mark Dawidziak is the author of many books, including the 1994 horror novel Grave Secrets and two histories of landmark TV series: The Columbo Phile: A Casebook (1989) and The Night Stalker Companion (1997). A recognized Mark Twain scholar, his acclaimed books on the author include Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing (1996) and Horton Foote’s The Shape of the River: The Lost Teleplay About Mark Twain (2003). He is also a playwright, director and actor.

From The Press
Guide to Diet, Exercise, Beauty, Fashion, Investment, Romance, Health and Happiness. Collected and edited by Mark Dawidziak. Prospect Park Books, 2015. Pp. 208. Hardcover. ISBN 978-1-938849-45-9. $16.95.

In his introduction, Mark Dawidziak notes that "There's something wrong with the title of this book . . . It's obviously too short" (7). With this wink to his readers, Dawidziak sets up a humorous collection of Mark Twain's advice, quotes, and maxims on various topics that provide the basis for twenty short chapters. He warns his readers that "Twain's advice runs contrary to almost every self-help book that has ever hit the bestseller lists" (9). Each chapter is introduced by a short comment from Dawidziak and a fitting illustration, many
carefully selected from first editions of Mark Twain's works to advance the humor. Material included in this volume has been harvested from a spectrum of Twain's works stretching from the familiar to the obscure.

Dawidziak's first collection of quotations - Mark My Words: Mark Twain on Writing - appeared in 1996 and attained the status of a collector’s item. This current book, with its eye-catching cover featuring an embossed cameo of Mark Twain by Albert Levering from 1905, will likely be another popular volume for both the collector and gift-giver.

                                    ----The Twain Forum – May 2015