I am sincere in my wish for the moderator to make a clear statement about
commercial solicitations on the listserv.

Mr Slotta has had enough time now to provide an answer to why he asked
people to contact him for "more information" but has remained silent. The
Sotheby's descriptions are lengthy and I can't think of any meaningful
information that could be added to them, so I repeat my question: "was he
soliciting bids?"  If not, then why the request for people to contact him?

Other interesting Twain material is constantly coming up for auction at
Sotheby's, Christies, ebay, etc., and yet Mr. Slotta does not alert everyone
on the list to those auctions, so I'm not convinced that he was motivated by
a sudden spasm of altruism to alert everyone about these items. By the way,
the poem is not a "new work" but was published years ago in the Berkeley
edition, along with its location at that time. To answer your question: No,
I do not plan to bid on either item. Nor do I plan to bid on the inscribed
first printing of TOM SAWYER at Christie's, which is a clever example of
fakery.

I agree with you that the Twain Forum moderator should not enter into the
business of dictating the content of email signature blocks (we'd all miss
those cute sayings and ads for ISPs), but I take it from your remarks that
you'd agree that we don't need catalogue notices, solicitations for bids,
and similar commercial messages.

I will submit a reason for Mr Slotta's posting. He is the owner of the two
items in question and consigned them to Sotheby's and his posting is simply
a commercial exploitation of this listserv by advertising their sale. If his
solicitation for interested parties to contact him was for the purpose of
soliciting bids that would raise even further questions regarding agency and
fiduciary conflicts.

Kevin Mac Donnell
Austin TX