Joseph Hopkins Twichell: The Life and Times of Mark Twain's Closest FriendBewilderment often follows when one learns that Mark Twain's best friend of forty years was a minister. That Joseph Hopkins Twichell (1838 1918) was also a New Englander with Puritan roots only entrenches the "odd couple" image of Twain and Twichell. This biography adds new dimensions to our understanding of the Twichell Twain relationship; more important, it takes Twichell on his own terms, revealing an elite Everyman a genial, energetic advocate of