Mark Twain, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the Head Readers

Having a phrenological ''head reading'' was one of the most significant fads of the nineteenth century – a means for better knowing oneself and a guide for self-improvement. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) had a lifelong yet long overlooked interest in phrenology, the pseudoscience claiming to correlate skull features with specialized brain areas and higher mental traits. Twain''s books are laced with...