Those of you with an interest in the portrayal of Sam Clemens in Hannibal
need to read the lengthy letter in today's Hannibal Courier Post
www.hannibal.net from Herb Parham, president of the Mark Twain Home
Foundation.  Herb writes in part, "Mr. George A. Mahan's 1912 vision of
Hannibal's tourist potential as Mark Twain's Boyhood Home in this hospitable
Mississippi river town was right on target.  His desire to promote the
fantasy, so well portrayed in Mark Twain's writings about his Hannibal
experiences, has been sought out by thousands of visitors throughtout the
world for more than 90 years."  Mr. Parham goes on to set forth the
Foundation's plans to build a house it is going to call the "Huckleberry
Finn" House and restore the "Becky Thatcher" House.  Give the letter a read.
I would be very interested to hear from any of you.
    If any of you are interested in seeing copies of the 1989 document
(which is referred to as a long range plan -- but is really notes from a
weekend meeting attended by a number of people, Lou Budd and Tom Quirk among
others, I believe.) I will be glad to get to you if you will send me a large
SASE.  It included discussion of portraying the real history of Sam Clemens,
slavery, and Twain's works besides Tom Sawyer -- notably Pudd'nhead and
Huck -- and other very reasonable suggestions that have never seen the light
of day.
    My apologies to those of you who are weary of me and are weary of the
continued tourist schlock in Hannibal. History does matter.  I have cleaned
up a number of fact errors that the museum was making.  There are many more
and the Foundation is about to embark on a program of misleading another
generation of school children and tourists as to the world that created
America's greatest writer with this Huckleberry Finn House.  There is not
even a clear historical connection between Tom Blankenship and the house. It
is Hannibal "folk history."  I'm going to do everything I can to straighten
it out.
      If you want a copy of the 1989 "plan" send that SASE to Terrell
Dempsey, P.O. Box 510, Hannibal, Missouri 63401.
    Terrell