Reporting from the Ohio delegation: I have yet to find them billed that way for any of the eight Buckeye State stops on the tour: Toledo, Cleveland, Dayton, Hamilton, Cincinnati, Columbus, Delaware, and Oberlin. There are many newspaper announcements and reviews for most of these stops (and even some letters to the editor). The billing doesn't even appear in a January 1938 "Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly" article that focuses on the intriguing response to the Oberlin appearance (where the audience seemingly preferred Cable to Clemens). The article, by Russel B. Nye, was published about 15 years before Cardwell's book. Twain wrote letters at steady rate throughout the tour, as did Cable. Has anyone yet found one of them using this "Twins of Genius" phrase? Just asking, because I haven't. 





On Tuesday, January 13, 2015 5:47 PM, John H. Muller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
 


To edify Mr. Griffin, I found when Twain & Cable came to Washington City
they weren't billed as the "Twins of Genius."

*Evening Star*, 15 Nov, 1884

5th column, mid-way

http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1884-11-15/ed-1/seq-8/

On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 4:04 PM, Benjamin GRIFFIN <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> I'd like to mention that, so far as I can tell, it's a myth that Twain and
> Cable were ever billed as "Twins of Genius." I'm preparing a little article
> about this often-repeated mistake.
>
> James B. Pond did advertise Bill Nye and James Whitcomb Riley as "Twins of
> Genius," in 1889-1890.  By 1900, when Pond wrote his memoir Eccentricities
> of Genius, his memory slipped and he transferred that label, retroactively
> and wrongly, to his earlier Twain-Cable tour (Eccentricities of Genius, p.
> 231).
>
> No doubt that is where Guy Cardwell picked up the phrase which he used as
> the title of his book on the Twain-Cable tour, which has made it a
> commonplace of MT scholarship. (In that book he does not cite any source
> for the "T. of G." phrase at all.)
>
> Of course this is the right forum to ask that, if anyone knows of anything
> suggesting that Twain and Cable were billed as Twins of Genius, in 1884-85
> or any other time, I'll provide my customary rueful retraction.
>
> Ben Griffin
> Mark Twain Project
> Berkeley
>
> On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 11:04 AM, Benjamin GRIFFIN <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > I'd like to mention that, so far as I can tell, it's a myth that Twain
> and
> > Cable were ever billed as "Twins of Genius." I'm preparing a little
> article
> > about this often-repeated mistake.
> >
> > James B. Pond did advertise Bill Nye and James Whitcomb Riley as "Twins
> of
> > Genius," in 1889-1890.  By 1900, when Pond wrote his memoir
> Eccentricities
> > of Genius, his memory slipped and he transferred that label,
> retroactively
> > and wrongly, to his earlier Twain-Cable tour (Eccentricities of Genius,
> p.
> > 231).
> >
> > No doubt that is where Guy Cardwell picked up the phrase which he used as
> > the title of his book on the Twain-Cable tour, which has made it a
> > commonplace of MT scholarship. (In that book he does not cite any source
> > for the "T. of G." phrase at all.)
> >
> > Of course this is the right forum to ask that, if anyone knows of
> anything
> > suggesting that Twain and Cable were billed as Twins of Genius, in
> 1884-85
> > or any other time, I'll provide my customary rueful retraction.
> >
> > Ben Griffin
> > Mark Twain Project
> > Berkeley
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 12:38 PM, Scott Holmes <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> I just received a copy of this book two days ago and I've become
> >> immersed in the broad topic of cultural milieu, then and now.  I'm
> >> rather disappointed in myself for not paying much attention to Andrew
> >> Levy's points all these years.  I don't particularly fit the profile he
> >> draws of most readers today in that I never thought of Huck Finn as
> >> centered on racism.  My own take has always been that this was a story
> >> of an outsider, a waif on the edge of society.  I considered that
> >> Twain's intention was to use this as a vantage point for criticizing
> >> that society.
> >>
> >> I've only just begun a close reading and I've already been distracted by
> >> my own research into The Twins of Genius Tour.  I must have read about
> >> it in passing but it was not until now that I've thought about it.  My
> >> first big find in this research was
> >> http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/huckfinn/hftourhp.html
> >> Wonderful job.
> >>
> >> Anyway, there seem to be a large number of reviews appearing and all are
> >> very positive.  I'm anxious to hear what Twain-Lians have to say about
> >> this.  I think it's going to stir that pot about the ending of the book.
> >> It seems Tom Sawyer's complex escape plans for Jim may have been the
> >> most popular part of The Twins of Genius Tour, at least Twain's part of
> >> the tour.  Just the reverse view is now held.  My thought on the matter
> >> is that if the racist elements of this segment were eliminated it would
> >> be considered a success.  It would be pure slap stick/vaudeville type
> >> humor, minstrelsy without the blackface, just replace Jim with Laurel or
> >> Hardy or one of the Stooges.
> >>
> >> Just some thoughts...
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Benjamin Griffin
> > Associate Editor, Mark Twain Project
> > The Bancroft Library
> > University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000
> > (510) 664-4238
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Benjamin Griffin
> Associate Editor, Mark Twain Project
> The Bancroft Library
> University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000
> (510) 664-4238
>



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