At 09:12 PM 1/20/97 -0800,  Meryem Constance Ersoz wrote:
 I'm trying to incorporate O'Neill
>and Cheney into my dissertation in what I hope is a responsible way)

At 02:30 PM 1/20/97 -0800, MCE wrote:
> Cheney's are a bit
>more imaginative and narrativized, but I don't necessarily consider this
>a strength because it converts what might be factual into a series of
>apocryphal stories.
.
If these are all the facts we have, then we must distort them
                to the best of our ability.  Imagine this man with
                10 years of life ahead "playing the scamp" in
              the lab of a man with 43 years still left to live.

                A few other slim threads of fact are available
                in this relationship
                We  honest experience.  This challenges others
                to divulge facts they may be hoarding, if they
                are ever to expose us  .. . uncloak our deception



>Any thoughts about these differences? Any ideas on why Cheney's work is
>cited instead of O'Neill's? (besides that hers is more recent)

O'Neill's in a field more bursting with great talent--
.       worthy and blessed Twain scholars  are more plentiful.

 Margaret Cheney's book was *mass-marketed*
         because only about 3 viable Tesla biographies existed
        at the time she published, and hers was state-of-the-art.




>I have more questions than answers about the historical value of these
>books. I think the question of how ethnicity factored into their
>relationship is a good one. In both O'Neill and Cheney, this difference
>is oddly absent in the descriptions of the Twain/Tesla relationship.

And Twain  knew Tesla's life impulse, free of earthly moorings,
                like his own.  He saw the boy still young and true to his
beginning.
                This light within transcends even matter itself.

  We can make up stuff like this all day and just use what works.

                        If you asked them, what would they say?

                Probably be too bashful to reveal themselves so plainly.
                ///////////////////////////////////////////////
                        Their friendship was the stuff of all friendship.
                        Imagination was their ever-present third friend.