The following blurb appeared in today's _New York Times_.  The new
edition of _Huck Finn_, reviewed here last month by Wesley Britton, is
supposed to be published on 1 May 1996, but--for those who can't wait
that long--it seems there's now a way to get a copy earlier than that.

Taylor Roberts <[log in to unmask]>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

   Now for an ethical question.

   You're in a hotel room.  Only two books are available.  One is a
   Gideon Bible.  The other is the new, unexpurgated edition of Mark
   Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn," published by Random House.

   Which do you steal--or take home--with you?  If you make off with the
   Gideon, you pay nothing.  If you pilfer the Twain, it will cost you
   $25.

   The Gideon will provide balm for your soul.  But the Twain will
   benefit efforts to bring literacy to others.  (You could, of course,
   take both and positively glow with goodness.)

   The genesis of this soul-searching conundrum is the dinner planned for
   tonight at the Regency Hotel, where Random House and Loews Hotels are
   starting up a fund-raising effort for Literacy Partners and other
   programs that promote adult learning across the country.

   Throughout this month, copies of the new "Huckleberry Finn," parts of
   which were discovered in a Hollywood attic six years ago, will be
   placed in every room of the eight Loews hotels across the country.  If
   a guest takes it, as confirmed by the minibar checker, $25 will be
   added to the bill and contributed to the cause of literacy.

   The honorary chairmen of the dinner are Harry Evans, the publisher and
   president of Random House; Jonathan Tisch, the president and chief
   executive of Loews Hotels, and Liz Smith, the columnist, who has long
   been involved in literacy campaigns.

   "Yes, we're encouraging people to lift things," Mr. Evans said
   yesterday as he arrived in New York from the Bahamas.  "I was once
   tempted to take a wonderful painting from a hotel in Italy, but that
   wasn't practical."

                           Nadine Brozan, "Chronicle," _New York Times_,
                           2 April 1996, p. B5.