Paul's database of the various editions of Twain's writings should be
very useful and reminded me of a project I've often wished someone
would undertake: A social history of Mark Twain's writings from
1910 onward.  Because of the way in which Twain's writings were
silently edited by Albert B. Paine, this would have to look at both
what titles and what *versions* of those titles were printed and
reprinted.

I think I first thought of this after reading William L. Andrews's article,
"The Politics of Publishing: A Note on the Bowdlerization of Mark Twain,"
_The Markham Review_ 7 (Fall 1977): 17-20.  Andrews mentioned
that before including "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" in _Europe
and Elsewhere_, Paine removed the part at the end about the U.S. army's
khaki uniforms, presumably in deference to post-World War I popular
sentiments.  Oddly, Twain's suggestion in the same paragraph that the
flag be changed to replace the stars with the skull and crossbones was left
in.  I had a number of anthologies on my shelf that contained that essay so
I checked to see which ones included Paine's version.  Here's what I found:

Paine's version:

    Janet Smith, _Mark Twain on the Damned Human Race_
    Charles Neider, _The Complete Essays of Mark Twain_
    Maxwell Gesimar, _Mark Twain and the Three R's_

Original version:

    Frederick Anderson, _A Pen Warmed-up In Hell_

The original has since also been published in Louis Budd's Library of
America anthology and my collection of Twain's writings on the
Philippines.  Paine's version has probably appeared in other
non-specialized anthologies of Twain's shorter writings, and the
original may have as well.

The thought that really struck me was that few people, including
editors like Smith and Geismar, know about Paine's silent editing,
and that comparatively few people have actually read the complete
version of "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" (Smith's anthology,
for example, was then in its 20th printing).  There are, of course,
many other examples including Paine's "Mysterious Stranger," and
other writings in _Europe and Elsewhere_, the speeches, autobiography,
notebooks, and letters.  There are at least two issues for a social
history.  One is the decisions Paine and others made about what to exclude
from texts, and the other is how the continued reprinting of those
modified texts continues to influence people's perceptions of Mark Twain,
his writings, and his times.

Does anyone want to take this up as his or her life's work?  Or maybe
start with a conference panel on it sometime?

Jim Zwick