It was SUCH a pleasure working with Penny David and Ray Sapirstein on their contributions to the Oxford Mark Twain! Their essays on the illustrations are one of my favorite parts of the set.  Penny's pioneering work on Twain and his illustrators was truly inspiring, and, looking back on it now, I realize that reading her book soon after it came out shaped my sense of how important it was to make the first American editions WITH their illustrations available to the public--which is what we did. It is rare to carve out a whole new approach to a field. Penny did that. She will be missed. 
 

On Jan 21, 2014, at 5:06 PM, Kent Rasmussen wrote:

> Penny's death is indeed sad news. Less than a week ago I was telling a
> friend outside the field about her wonderful work on Mark Twain's
> illustrators. I also mentioned how great she had looked at the 2009 Elmira
> convention, when she had shocked me by revealing she she was 82 years old. I
> would have believed she was 20 years younger. Well, she reached the age of
> 86, and that ain't bad, but I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing she had made
> it to 100. I'll miss her.