These volumes were part of a proposed complete uniform edition of Mark
Twain's previously published works that never materialized.  The
multi-volume edition was proposed by Harper and Row in the early
1960s.  John Gerber (University of Iowa) headed up the editorial board
and assembled editors who were academics (not textual experts) for at
least 22 volumes of the previously published material.  Harper backed
out of the project after deciding it would not be a profit maker.
Gerber was left without a publisher. Gerber and his editorial board
scrapped around for federal grant funding and obtained some, but not
enough to make headway on completing publication of all the volumes.
In the meantime,  MLA and the Center for Editions of American Authors
gained control of NEH federal funding for such projects and insisted
any books receiving funding be "stamped" as conforming to high
standards regarding texual authenticity. In the mid 1970s the NEH
recommended that the project be combined with the ongoing and more
successful Mark Twain Papers project at the University of California.
University of California Press became the publisher of what is known
as the 8 volumes of the Iowa-California edition (which are not
consecutively numbered, adding to the confusion surrounding this
edition).

Two articles in American Quarterly, Winter 1964, by Frederick Anderson
and Paul Baender spelled out the publishing ventures of the Mark Twain
Papers (at Berkeley) and the Iowa Works of Mark Twain project with
much optimism.  However, by the time John Gerber penned his memories
of his work on the project several decades later (in "The Iowa Years
of The Works of Mark Twain," Studies in American Humor, no. 4, 1997),
he said he felt like he was recalling a farce or gothic horror story.
It was an endeavor filled with professional frustrations, missteps,
governmental bureaucracy, and scholastic rivalries.

Unfortunately, funding for continuing the scholarly Works of Mark
Twain editions which began in Iowa and ended up at the University of
California seems to be lower priority and come at a slower pace than
what we would hope to have.

Barb