Value, of course, is defined by each individual.  What is important to
one or another will be a waste of resources to someone else.  But what
Will Bagley did not note in his post was that the Twain Project has
great value to those not interested centrally in Twain studies.

The project itself is a model of cooperative scholarship, bringing
together some of the best scholars in their area in the world.  Anyone
thinking of undertaking a large scholarly project should use them as an
ideal.  Anyone who has worked there can never forget the experience.
Their work is exemplary.  Anyone who wants to see just what a letters
project can and should produce need only look at Mark Twain's Letters,
especially volumes 3-5.  These are aesthetically and intellectually
beautiful works.  While the letters themselves are spectacular, the
notes, commentaries, and appendices are also among the best, if not the
best, that can be found in American scholarship and publishing.
Finally, the plain-text editing method is a great advance over earlier
methods and itself deserves far more attention than it has been given.

I'd like someone to put pressure on Will Bagley's comment that "The
Twain project has been the focus of research (and spending) at the
Bancroft for years."  No doubt that they've been a focal point (they
are, after all, housed in the building), but I'd like confirmation that
they are "the" focus.  And if they were and are, isn't that a sign of
their significance?  But maybe Will is just overstating his point, as,
to me, he does elsewhere in the post.

Greg Zacharias
Creighton University
Omaha