On May 16th, the _New York Times_ ran a feature article on the _Huckleberry
Finn_ manuscript. According to the article's author, Deirdre Carmody, the
_New Yorker_ will publish excerpts from the manuscript in the issue that
"comes out on June 19" (it is not clear to me whether that is the issue's
release date or its cover date). The article goes on to discuss the content
of the long-missing manuscript and the history of its disappearance.

The article also discusses the still-raging battle over control of the
literary content of the manuscript. Random House is apparently trying to
get control, so it can release its own new _HF_ edition. The distressing
thing, to me, is the possibility that the Mark Twain Project may be left
out of the equation. It is a pity that the publishing world apparently does
not recognize the value of keeping control of corrected editions of Mark
Twain works in the hands of the only people in the world qualified to
create them--viz., the Mark Twain Project. I would like to see the MTP
issue a new edition, and then let Random House license it for its own
Modern Library edition, or whatever.