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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Mon, 3 Apr 1995 21:55:40 EST
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Tom,
    The words you are looking for are frequently attributed to Clemens,
but he did not write them.  The lines on Susy's headstone were written by
an Australian poet, Robert Richardson.  They are as follows:

     Warm summer sun shine kindly here;
     Warm southern* wind blow softly here;
     Green sod above lie light, lie light -
     Good night, dear heart, good night, good night.

* In the original poem the word "southern" was "northern" as in Australia
the warm wind is from the north.

     Clemens did realize that people were mistakenly attributing the
poem to him, and with good reason as initially the gravestone did not
credit its true author.  In the autobiographical dictation of January
22, 1907 (Published in the North American Review), Clemens hoped to clear
the matter up as follows:

"...The authorship of the beautiful lines which my wife and I inscribed
upon Susy's gravestone was untraceable for a time.  We had found them in
a book in India, but had lost the book and with it the author's name.
But in time an application to the editor of "Notes and Queries" furnished
me the author's name, and it has been added to the verses upon the
gravestone..." (See Kiskis, _Mark Twain's Own Autobiogrpahy_, page 138).

BTW, it would be interesting to trace that reference to "Notes and
Queries", something I've always wanted to do.  Is it really there?

Paul Berkowitz ([log in to unmask])

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