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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
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Thu, 10 Apr 2003 12:28:00 -0500
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Kevin Mac Donnell <[log in to unmask]>
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Somebody raised the issue of books dedicated to Twain, and I've finally had
time to locate a few on my shelves (I'm certain I've missed some):

Bowen THE MASTER OF STAIR 1907

Van Vorst WOMAN WHO TOILS 1903

Paine SHIP-DWELLERS. 1910

Knowles A TREASURY OF HUMOROUS POETRY 1902

Phillpotts THE HUMAN BOYS AGAIN 1908 (I have the dedication copy inscribed
by Twain, given to him by Phillpotts)

Patton JAPANESE TOPSYTURVY-DOM 1896

Quick CHANGING WINDS 1935

Years ago I searched for Twain dedications among books by the phunny
phellows, prolific fellow authors and friends like Riley, Higginson,
Howells, Warner, Stowe, Matthews, Hutton, etc. --and found none. Surprising
not to have found any dedication from Howells.

A search through Gribben for dedication copies would likely yield good
results, as would some clever key-word searches in the letters to/from and
the CD-ROM, and I'd be surprised if some Missouri authors and some modern
day self-styled humorous writers would not have tried to inflate the value
of their literary currency with a Twain dedication.

Besides formal dedications of books, there is also a sub-genre of poems
dedicated to Twain, all uniformly bad no matter who the poet. And there are
some oddball books like Bloodgood Cutter's POEMS which is not formally
dedicated to Twain, but he plays up the title Twain bestowed on him during
the Quaker City voyage and places Twain's portrait where a dedication would
usually appear in any book authored by a sane person.

Hope this is helpful.

Kevin

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