You are correct, but correcting this a Quixotic task -- similar to the 
notion that Shakespeare advocated "let's kill all the lawyers"  and I'm 
sure there are many other examples.

Frankly, I find equally irritating that the modern American public 
focuses on HF almost to the exclusion of MT's other great works.  I have 
a friend who teaches high school American Studies and I've been begging 
him for years to occasionally teach Connecticut Yankee instead of HF, to 
no avail.  But that's a different story.

Anyway, one ought never be shocked by the ignorance of the average 
American.  The scary thing isn't so much their inaccurate attribution of 
literary quotations, but the fact that they all vote ;-p

-Steve Hoffman
Takoma Park MD

Harold Bush wrote:
> you know what always irritates me just a little?  It's when someone says th=
> e
> following:
>
>   
>> He's been called the greatest American writer of all time. His bestsellin=
>>     
> g
>   
>> novel, "The [sic] Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" =97 the book, Ernest
>> Hemingway wrote, from which "all American literature comes"
>>
>>
>>     
> Now, perhaps I'm splitting hairs here.  But Hemingway never said this.  A
> character in one of his stories said it.  Which means, it's like saying Poe
> once said that "I looked for the opportunity to dismember him" (Tell-tale
> Heart).
>
> Is it just me here?  I beg you, members of the guild -- please help me to
> overcome my own rather severe weaknesses on this extremely trivial
> matter...  best, -hb
>
>
> --=20
> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
> Professor of English
> Saint Louis University
> St. Louis, MO  63108
> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>
>
>
>