Good question. I looked at that earlier and contemporary papers put them
in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. No mention of Muskegon.
Kevin
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------ Original Message ------
From: "JULES AUSTIN HOJNOWSKI" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: 4/8/2020 5:41:32 AM
Subject: Re: Mark Twain in Muskegon, MI
>Hi
>Are there any newspapers from that time from around that area that might have better info?
>
>:)
>Jules
>
>
>Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36>
>________________________________
>From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Benjamin Griffin <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2020 6:26:05 PM
>To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Mark Twain in Muskegon, MI
>
>The plot thickens. Through the decency of the HathiTrust Library, which has
>given the UC Libraries emergency access to online texts, I've been able to
>see In digital copies of the earliest printings of this lost letter.
>
>In Cyril Clemens's *Mark Twain, the Letter-Writer *(1932), the dateline is
>simply "*Michigan, Dec. 1884*." When Cyril Clemens printed this letter
>again in the *Mark Twain Quarterly *in 1941, the dateline had grown to
>read: "*Muskegon, Michigan, December 4, 1884*."
>
>There are two possibilities. Either Cyril returned to the manuscript letter
>and transcribed it more fully than he had before, OR [a strong nudge here]
>he supplied "Muskegon" and "4" out of his own erratic brain. Since both
>"December 4" and "Muskegon," as Scott points out, make no sense, I think
>it's clear these details are mere invention. Later, no doubt, some well
>meaning person made a "correction" from 4 to 14, on the grounds that at
>least Clemens was *near *Muskegon on the latter date. Unluckily, they
>"corrected" without getting all the facts. (I think it's right to emphasize
>again that, for the letters of years we haven't edited yet, MTPO
>information isn't as refined as it will be later.)
>
>So much for Mark Twain's phantom side-excursion to Muskegon! (Rabbit hole?
>. . . What rabbit hole?)
>
>Ben
>
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