biographer, albert bigelow paine, consoled himself by playing billiards with mark twain. he managed to complete the book, publishing it two years after the cartoonist's untimely death. when it appeared in 19 for, 1904,-- 19 no for, it -- get attracted criticism. one was a contemporary of nast who disagreed with paine and some of his conclusions. nast was not this man a particularly original artist. he borrowed his best ideas from other people. he made a habit of plagiarism. he made that up, but let's call it that. worst of all, he had not really done anything in the civil war. paine pushed back like you do on a half of the person you wrote a biography. some are easy, proving nast was significant in general. that was not difficult at all. a little touch year was demonstrating nast had worked in the field during the war the way other illustrators had done. that likely, it seems, nast had worked a little. only limited contact with the war itself outside of new york's newspaper buildings, a location not known for big battles. that context matter to him. it changed him. if you