I can see how the way that I said that could come off as disrespectful, and
I apologize for that. I think that Kevin is one of the most knowledgeable
and gracious Twain people I've ever come into contact with, but I have just
not been able to bring myself to read the article.  I do not question why a
fat guy is called slim, just like I do not question why Sam Clemens is
called Mark Twain--it's obvious. I'm as stubborn as a Missouri mule--and
for that,again, I am sorry.

Dustin Zima
Elmira College

On Mon, Jan 26, 2015 at 1:47 PM, Kevin Mac Donnell <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> "an obscure book that he may have read"??
>
> Clearly, you have not read my article. It was not a book and not obscure.
> Vanity Fair was the most popular and widely distributed humor journal of
> its
> day. It was edited by Artemus Ward and Charles J. Leland, both of whom
> became good friends of Mark Twain, not to mention many of its contributors.
> It was also one of the two major journals that published Bohemian authors;
> the other was the Saturday Press, in which Twain's jumping frog story
> gained
> national fame. To imagine that Twain was not familiar with Vanity Fair
> (which was being copied in Virginia City newspapers and sold off Virginia
> City newsstands even before Twain arrived there) but that he was at the
> same
> time very familiar with several minor humor magazines and was being
> influenced by Ward's writings that appeared in Vanity Fair is absurd. I
> have
> a modest proposal: read my article.
>
> Kevin
> @
> Mac Donnell Rare Books
> 9307 Glenlake Drive
> Austin TX 78730
> 512-345-4139
> Member: ABAA, ILAB
> *************************
> You may browse our books at:
> www.macdonnellrarebooks.com
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dustin Zima
> Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 4:06 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Connection between Twain and Lincoln
>
> I think we are paddling into the similarly muddy waters of Sam taking
> his name from an obscure book that he may have read.  There seems to
> be a lot of this going on in Twain scholarship--scholarship in
> general, really.
>
> Dustin Zima
> Elmira College
>
> On 1/25/15, Arianne <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> > It would be interesting to learn if there was a book on Lincoln in Mark
> > TWain's library.  Wouldn't surprise me to learn that Mark Twain indeed
> > read
> > the account Lincoln wrote of a raft trip down the river.  If so, it
> surely
> > could be an influence.  I'd love to read the Lincoln story.
> >
> > Appreciate the Kaplan comments, too!
> > Arianne
> >
> > On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 6:04 AM, Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >> For the record, the assertions in that article are extremely tenuous at
> >> best.  It's always fun to speculate but there is evidently, in this
> case,
> >> no real evidence to support that Lincoln's stories are behind Huck Finn.
> >> If I missed the evidence please enlighten me.
> >>
> >> As far as somewhat less specific connections between AL & MT, now that
> is
> >> an interesting question.  Twain wrote about Lincoln on at least 2
> >> occasions
> >> and also gave at least one speech about Lincoln, for example.  I tried
> to
> >> imagine the implications of that connection myself, in some of my work;
> >> I
> >> figure them both, in Twain's words, as "men of the border," a phrase I
> >> like
> >> a lot.  But maybe my favorite formulation is by Fred Kaplan:  "Just as
> >> Howells has called Twain the Lincoln of our literature," Kaplan writes,
> >> "I
> >> could envision Lincoln as the Twain of our politics."  I like that!!
> >>
> >> On Sun, Jan 25, 2015 at 7:18 AM, Dave Davis <[log in to unmask]
> >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >> > That's pretty interesting. First I'd ever heard of this Vote Lincoln!
> >> book.
> >> >
> >> > SLC's (unpaid; maybe room & board, at best?) berth out West came
> >> > through
> >> > Orion. I don't know how big brother was selected for his post-- he
> must
> >> > have had some connection to the territorial governor, James Nye? (Nye
> >> was,
> >> > of course, a Lincoln appointee.)
> >> >
> >> > DDD
> >> >
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> Prof. Harold K. Bush
> >> Professor of English
> >> 3800 Lindell
> >> Saint Louis University
> >> St. Louis, MO  63108
> >> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> >> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Arianne Laidlaw A '58
> >
>