Dear CHICAGO-AREA Mark Twain enthusiasts:

You may find interest in a talk that I will be delivering Sunday
afternoon, November 17, 2002, at the Curt Teich Archives in Wauconda,
Ill., and I trust that it is an appropriate use of the Forum to invite
you to attend.

(Does it count as shameless self-promotion if Mark Twain is your hobby,
not your profession?  Anyway, why should self-promotion be inappropriate
for an admirer of Mark Twain?)

"Mark Twain on Postcards" is a survey (lavishly illustrated of course)
that I delivered at the Elmira symposium in 2001.  Using examples from
1905, when postcards first became a huge fad in the U.S., on to the
present, I show how Mark Twain's image, his words and scenes, his trail
of dwelling places and travels, and his iconic status in general tended
to feed and be fed by the postcard medium.

The quotes, the statues, the staged scenes, the Tom and Huck Motel and
so forth are a lot of fun to flip through, and I am as eager to tell the
postcard people about Mark Twain as I was to tell the Mark Twain people
about postcards.  For the Elmira audience, the biographical details were
hardly necessary; for the postcard audience, I will be a little more
thorough.  The museum will also be displaying a selection from my
collection of Mark Twain postcards.

The lecture is at 4 p.m. and will be followed by a reception.  This is a
fund-raising event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Curt Teich
Archives.  The lecture is $11, lecture + reception $28.  For
reservations call 847-963-3400.

The Curt Teich Postcard Archives are part of the Lake County Discovery
Museum (a not-for-profit agency), located about 30 miles north of
Chicago.  Established to hold the complete production files of the Curt
Teich Co., the premier manufacturer of postcards in the U.S. between
1898 and 1978, the archive has flourished for 20 years as a research
facility and a source for cultural historians (e.g., to illustrate those
books on roadside diners or Route 66) and lately has opened a large
display building.  For more information see www.teicharchives.org.

Hope to see you there.

Henry Feldman
Newtonville, Mass.