The MTP has routinely been given photocopies of letters, inscriptions, and
marginalia by the major auction houses over the years, and Twain's copy of
OUR WILD INDIANS was sold at Christie's some years back, so MTP may very
well have copies of the marginalia.

Your question raises a valid issue: the withholding of material from
scholars by collectors and dealers. As a collector of Twain material, and a
dealer in a much broader range of literary materials, I have little sympathy
for those who keep such material hidden from view.

When I purchased Twain's heavily annotated copy of Lecky some years ago, I
immediately made it avaliable to Alan Gribben. Until that time only a
handful of the annotations (on slavery, religion, morality, western thought
and social trends, etc.) had been shared by the previous owner, each
dribbled out one or two at a time in a kind of sleazy strip-tease. I later
got in touch with Elmira (where Theodore Crane's copy of Lecky survives,
also with a few Twain annotations) and they readily agreed to share those
annotations for publication when I published the annotations in my copy. I
have since contacted a publisher, bought a copy of the same edition as
Twain's copy, and am now slowly making progress as time permits in laying
out camera ready copy for a "type-facsimile" edition that will reproduce
Twain's annotations as they appear in the original Lecky text. Making an
actual photo-facsimile of every annotation would destroy the original book,
but a carefully edited facsimile of the kind I have begun to compile, will
make all of the annotations available in their original context to the
entire community of scholars, and allow scholars themselves to draw their
own professional conclusions. Indeed, what purpose would be served if I were
to keep this book hidden away for my private amusement or with the dream of
future profits? And don't we all wish that the Lecky annotations had been
shared with Walter Blair, Ham Hill, Lou Budd, Al Gribben, and a host of
others years ago? Of course, if they had been, I might have had to pay even
more for it than I did...

Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX