The 25 June 1970 news report is accurate, as far as it goes. News of the
sale
prompted the actual owners of the manuscript to come forward and
assert their claim to it. I'm not sure whether the dispute ever went to
court, but the result was that the Berg returned the manuscript to them,
the dealer returned the money to the Berg, and the owners decided to give
the manscript to MTP. It was appraised at that time (April 1973) for
$40,000.

The owners were Mrs. Eugene Lada-Mocarski and Mrs. Bayard Schieffelin,
grandnieces of Mark Twain on the Langdon side.

Bob

On Sun, 13 Apr 1997, Barbara Schmidt wrote:

> A 1970 news report indicates Twain's Ashcroft-Lyon manuscript was
> purchased by the New York Library - Berg Collection for a price
> in excess of $25,000.
>
> Subsequent books related to Twain including H. Hill's _Mark Twain:
> God's Fool_ (1973) reference the Ashcroft-Lyon manuscript as being at
> MTP.
>
> Is the 1970 news report inaccurate or is there some other reason the Berg
> Collection is not referenced as the owner of the Ashcroft-Lyon
> manuscript?
>
> Barb