I'm Burning Mark Twain on My Desk

....and boy, does he smell good!

Of course, I'm not really burning the Man or even his books; rather, it's a "Mark Twain-scented candle" from Paddywax.

And what, you ask, does Mr. S. Clemens smell like?  According to Paddywax, he's a combination of tobacco flower and vanilla.

Other authors in the Paddywax Library collection include Leo Tolstoy (black plum, persimmon and oak moss), Emily Dickinson (lavender and cassis), Oscar Wilde (cedarwood, thyme and basil), Edgar Allan Poe (cardamom, absinthe and sandalwood), Jane Austen (gardenia, tuberose and jasmine) and, pictured above, Charles Dickens (tangerine, juniper and clove).  If the store had stocked the Dickens scent, you can bet I would have grabbed it faster than you could say "Uriah Heep."

I bought the Twain soy candle and an air diffuser two days ago while shopping at The Modern Merchantile in Hailey, Idaho.  The Merc, by the way, is owned by Sarah Hedrick, queen bee of Iconoclast Books in Ketchum and my hostess during a recent two-day heavenly stay in Sun Valley.  I'll have more about my time in Sun Valley in a future blog post (including my literary tourism stops along the Hemingway trail), but for now let me just say that if you find yourself in this part of Idaho, you should stop in and say hi to Sarah and Gary at Iconoclast.  They're good people who love good books.  If they were candles, they'd smell like warm cookies and fresh-cut book pages.