On Thu, 2 Jan 1997, Barbara Schmidt wrote:

> In _Selected Letters of P.T. Barnum_, (Columbia Univ. Press, 1983)
> A. H. Saxon states that Twain's "A Curious Pleasure Excursion"
> actually appeared in print in the New York Sun first and that
> the story was reprinted in the New York Herald.
>
> According to Twain's own text in the first edition of _Sketches New and
> Old_, the New York Herald version of 1874 was used in that book.
>
> The University of Califonia Press' _Early Tales & Sketches, Vol. 1_
> states the sketch appeared in the New York Tribune on July 6, 1874.
>
> Is there a verified chronology of when this story actually did
> appear in the various New York newspapers?
>
>
> Barb
>

The citation to the New York *Tribune* in *Early Tales & Sketches, Vol. 1,*
p. 634, n. 204, is simply wrong. The newspaper cited chould have been the
New York *Herald* of 6 July 1874, not the *Tribune* of that date.

Saxon corrected his claim about the New York *Sun* when he published a
French translation of his Barnum letters in 1986: see *Barnum par
Lui-Meme,* 1986, Editions de la Gardine, commentary to letter 155. We have
not found any earlier printing in the *Sun,* although it is entirely
possible the *Sun* reprinted the *Herald* after 6 July 1874. Lou Budd
cites the *Herald* as the source of his text in *Collected Tales,
Sketches, Speeches, & Essays, 1852-1890,* p. 1015.

Bob Hirst