Reporters and readers are free to love or hate this Autobiography but  
the recent press out of NY is vexing when you consider the assets that  
NY has to promote.

This is Volume 1 of 3 and to get to this point it has been a lot of  
work on the part of MTP. The bulk of Volume 1 explains how this  
Autobiography came to be, and it is an impressive story... we're  
taking about a 40+ year project. Not to mention- There is an amazing  
exhibit at the Morgan Library and Museum that showcases the  
collections of not one but two NYC tourist attractions and yet they  
(the press) continue to focus on the negatives. Loop in all that NY  
State has to offer and one has to ask "why?" Why the negative press  
from the NY Times and the New Yorker?

We have a good 9 years to promote Twain and the  
sites/libraries/museums/people that relate to his time in the  
Tri-State area... why is that so hard to grasp?




Quoting James E Caron <[log in to unmask]>:

> I can't agree that Keillor was "scathing" in his review, but any
one =
> might feel disappointed, depending on expectations.
>
> I thought he had it mostly right.
>
> There will be many folks this Christmas who will be given this
volume, =
> and it will go right onto their shelves in a conspicuous spot,
without =
> much more than a skimming sort of read, because they too had =
> expectations. =20
>
> The skimming will not even have to look for the reference to
Paige's =
> testicles caught in a vise, since Keillor cites it.  I wonder how
many =
> people bought the book because they think that there will be lots
of =
> similar passages in a volume supposedly suppressed for 100 years?
>
> Such is the way of the world, with the trail of the serpent over
all.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Twain Forum on behalf of Scott Holmes
> Sent: Sat 12/18/2010 8:52 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Garrison Keillor on the autobiography
> =20
> Much as I was a fan of Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion", I'm a
bit
> disappointed in his appraisal of this volume.  I have to think that
Mr
> Keillor is a reader of the New Yorker and has taken his clues from
> therein.  As Twain says, "...the latest review of a book was pretty
much
> to be just a reflection of the earliest review of it; ".
>
> For myself, I enjoy what amounts to the character development (of
Mark
> Twain) afforded by the "stream of consciousness" approach and do
not
> expect the deliberate structure required of a novel or travelogue.
>
> On Fri, 2010-12-17 at 12:11 -0800, Arianne wrote:
>> Here's the link:
>> =20
>> =
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/books/review/Keillor-t.html?pagewanted=3D=
> 1&_r=3D1
>> =20
>> Arianne Laidlaw
>> =20
>> On Fri, Dec 17, 2010 at 7:44 AM, Jerry Vorpahl =
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> > The front page of today's NY Times features a long and scathing
=
> review of the Mark Twain Autobiography by Garrison Keillor that's
sure =
> to annoy Twainophiles for some time come,
>