I am posting the following on behalf of Joe B. Fulton.
~~~~~


In his January 30, 2017, review of my book _Mark Twain under Fire:
Reception and Reputation, Criticism and Controversy, 1851-2015_, Kevin Mac
Donnell criticized my inclusion of certain material in my book. I feel that
clarification is necessary. As Mac Donnell said in his review, there is
more to the story.


_Mark Twain under Fire_ is a history of Mark Twain criticism from its
earliest stages to very recent criticism. In the book, I rely on many
archival documents to discuss the forces that have contributed--and still
contribute--to the scholarship on America's foremost writer and cultural
icon. It is possible that, reading Mac Donnell's review, a reader might
form the impression that my use of quotations in illuminating the
controversy surrounding the Mark Twain Project on pages 142-144 of _Mark
Twain under Fire_ may infringe on copyright and may even be potentially
defamatory. This would be an unfortunate, and inaccurate, impression.


Let me begin by describing the material. The correspondence written by many
individuals to many different people was bundled by someone (Mac Donnell
asserts it was Robert Hirst, director of the Mark Twain Project), given a
title page, consecutively paginated, and dated July 16, 1985. Mac Donnell
alleges that the person who bundled these letters together distributed them
to four Twain scholars.


Two of these copies were eventually donated to the Mark Twain Archives at
Elmira College in Elmira, New York, where they have been available to
scholars for years. Both have title pages and are dated. The copy I used
was from the Louis J. Budd Papers and has all the earmarks of a book: a
cover illustration, a title, a subtitle that calls it "A Selected Edition
in Photofacsimile," a table of contents, chapter titles and epigraphs, and
consecutive pagination. I refer to this collection in my book with the
abbreviation _MTPC_, from part of the title on the cover: "The Mark Twain
Project's Correspondence." I quote from only ten documents out of this
214-page bundle. All ten are on letterhead, one from the United States
Information Agency. All are essential to the critical history I was writing.


I quoted from these ten documents briefly, within fair use guidelines, and
with the permission of the Mark Twain Archives. As for whether or not any
of these documents are defamatory, I do not take sides in my book as to the
charges levelled in those documents. I quoted from the documents in the
_MTPC_ because they illuminate a dynamic within this critical community
that is essential to the subject of my history. As Mac Donnell pointed out
in his review, one _must_ discuss the Mark Twain Project in a book like
_Mark Twain under Fire_; I would argue, too, that the Mark Twain Project
has exerted such a tremendous influence on scholarship and criticism, that
no history of Mark Twain criticism can be written without appreciating the
conflicts that occurred during the 1980s among important members of this
critical community. In my treatment, I believe I approached the matter
legally, fairly, and responsibly.


Dr. Joe B. Fulton, Baylor University