As several of you have asked me questions about the background of
_Colonel Sellers_,  I here offer insights from Robert Hirst and Peg
Wheery.

According to Bob, Jerry Thomason worked up the history of _CS_'s
composition and production, and also established the text, in his
dissertation, "Colonel Sellers: The Story of His Play," at the
University of Missouri at Columbia (director, Thomas Quirk), May
1991. He drew on four sources for the text: two of them at the Mark
Twain Papers, one on deposit with the copyright office in
Washington, and one now at Stanford.

Bob also corrected one of my foul ups: Jerry didn't "find" the Kate
Wilson story , it was Bob Sattelmeyer.  "Of course," Hirst says:
          like the Louisa May Alcott story now in the news, Kate
          was never really "lost" in any idiomatic sense, just
          unknown to Bob when he came across it. Basically Bob read
          it here and asked if he could publish it before the
          edition, and I said he could.

There is one other Sellers item--a play, "Colonel Sellers as
a Scientist" at Virginia that apparently has not yet been
published.  On that subject, Peg Wherry was intrigued by my comment
on Howells, asking if there is any evidence of Howells'
participation in _CS_.  She notes "Twain and Howells clearly
collaborated on `Col. Sellers as a Scientist' according to their
letters."   She cites Twain's letter to Howells, 5 September 1881:

          Your refined people & purity of speech would make the
          best possible background for this coarse old ass. And
          when you were done, I could take your MS & re-write the
          Colonel's speeches & make him properly vulgar &
          extravagant.

I know Tom Quirk is out there: can you help Peg out?  She also says
her home university is not a research base and is unlikely to make
_CS_ available to her.  Will anyone be making the text available
electronically?  It also seems time to stir up getting _CS as
Scientist_ made available to the scholarly community.  Can anyone
help there?

And thanks to those who sent kind notes about the review.  For a
short piece, it's aroused more private conversation than any
"legitimate" postings I've placed on the _Forum_ (outside of the
book, now on its way to a publisher.  Gasp).  Thanks again.

"Tis nobler to withstand the slings and arrows of outrageous
critics."

Wes Britton