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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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From:
Mike Pearson <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 2 Mar 1997 13:52:37 PST
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At 06:52 PM 2/27/97 -0500, Barbara Schmidt wrote:
>When Adlai E. Stevenson was running for President in 1952, it was
>reported that he wrote a letter to Cyril Clemens blaming Mark Twain
>for the confusion surrounding the mispronunciation of his
>name:
>
>While my grandfather, Adlai E. Stevenson, was Vice President -  Mark
>Twain was at a luncheon where grandfather was a guest. The newspapers of
>the time quoted Mark Twain as follows on the pronunciation of my first
>name:
>
>'Philologists sweat and lexicographers bray,
>But the best they can do is to call him Ad-lay.
>But at longshoremen's picnics, where accents are high,
>Fair Harvard's not present, so they call him Ad-lie.'
>
>Adlai Stevenson was Vice President 1893-1897.  Does anyone know the date or
>occasion when Twain might made have made such a speech?
>
>Barb
>
>
Dear Barb,

I have enjoyed this letter several times; then one of my own thoughts struck
me,
and I fell to the floor, slightly bruised but still semi-conscious.

His use of hundred dollar words would be lost on any but the  elite-erati of
his
 day-- with me so far?

If you have a list of his itinerary, find one where James J. Kilpatrick
 was  likely to be present.

If this helps answer your question, I am glad to be of help.
If not, perhaps you could help by narrowing the question from
"Does anyone know...?"  to Does  "So-and So know....?"

Mike

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