KEvin--

Now that Bob has won, why not up the value of the prize?  How about an  
all-expense paid trip to the Mark Twain Papers?

--LH
On May 2, 2010, at 10:05 AM, Kevin Mac Donnell wrote:

> We now seem to have four correct answers, and since Bob Hirst got  
> two of
> them and the other two were split between Kerry Driscoll and Barb  
> Schmidt,
> that makes Bob the winner, and his book hits the mail tomorrow.
>
> Sharon McCoy raises a good point about the 1853 letter home from NY  
> (it
> reads like a rehearsal or rough draft for Pap Finn's rant about the
> well-dressed black gentleman carrying the silver-headed cane --who  
> can even
> vote!). But I had in mind a piece of writing (letter or otherwise)  
> that
> Twain wrote with the intention of publication. I'm not sure the  
> letter home
> to his family fits that profile. Or does it?
>
> On a slightly different note, a sort of follow-up to question #4...   
> I don't
> know about other Twainians, but I wince whenever I run across Twain  
> using
> the n-word in his post-1885 letters or writings. The use of the word  
> in HF
> has been repeatedly debated, with the consensus view being that he  
> used the
> word in context or else with intended and effective irony, and it  
> has even
> been eloquently defended by black commentators. But Twain's own non- 
> literary
> use of the word later on makes clear he was not the color-blind pure- 
> hearted
> post-racial saint that some would like to imagine. Even when he  
> doesn't
> actually use the word, Twain's own racism shines through, as in his  
> comment
> that he was the laziest white man that he knew. His 1907 comment to  
> Dorothy
> Quick isn't a hateful use of the term, but it surely isn't benign  
> either.
> And his 1902 comment about black cigar-makers in Cuba licking cigars  
> during
> their manufacture and possibly spreading diseases is offensive, even  
> if
> biologically accurate (would Twain have bothered to make the comment  
> had
> they been white?). For his era, Twain was as progressive in his  
> racial views
> as anyone (but not more so, I'd suggest), but has anyone closely  
> catalogued
> his post-1885 comments on race, his use of the n-word in private  
> letters
> after 1885, and published a study of his racial attitudes focusing  
> on this
> period?
>
> 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: "Robert Hirst" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Sunday, May 02, 2010 9:09 AM
> Subject: that makes it two wrong
>
>
>> Barb Schmidt points out that the 1 November 1856 Snodgrass letter
>> beats the "River Intelligence."
>>
>> Kerry Driscoll points out that Letter IV of "Letters from the Earth"
>> (October-November 1909) beats the letter to Dorothy Quick.
>>
>> Now why did I stay up all night to get my answers?
>>
>
>
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