I am forwarding an answer from Charles Faulhaber, Director of the
Bancroft Library, to Will Bagley's letter of 21 July about funding for
the Bancroft collections. I hope it will clarify any misapprehensions
about how Bancroft money could have been "better spent."

Harriet Smith
Associate Editor
Mark Twain Project

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 15:42:43 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Charles Faulhaber <[log in to unmask]>
  To: Robert Hirst <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: Mark Twain Project Funding Crisis
>
> As director of Bancroft, I don't want to be put in the position of
> deciding whether one of our collections is more important than another
> (and which kid would you like to sacrifice today, Mrs. Smith?).
>
> I would like to point out that it's not an either-or proposition. If
> there had been no Mark Twain Project at Berkeley, it is _highly_
> unlikely that we would have been able to generate the same amount of
> external support for processing other collections, worthy though they are.
>
> The simple fact is that Mark Twain, for good and sufficient reasons,
> commands a degree of interest and support across such a broad range of
> audiences that simply does not exist for other resources. So the choice
> is not Mark Twain or an equivalent amount of support for other
> collections; but rather, Mark Twain or a substantially lesser amount of
> support for other collections.
>
> Charles Faulhaber
  Director
  The Bancroft Library
> >
>
> > Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 10:42:46 -0600 (MDT)
> > From: wlbagley <[log in to unmask]>
> >
> > The funding crisis for the Bancroft's Mark Twain Project is indeed sad,
> > but there's a certain irony, too. The Twain project has been the focus
of
> > research (and spending) at the Bancroft for years, at the cost of the
> > library's many other collections associated with other, less glamourous
> > figures. Could the money have been better spent working with the vast
> > Mexican archive collection H. H. Bancroft acquired or developing the
early
> > California records that have languished in the monetary rain shadow of
> > America's most popular humorist? The real tragedy is that public funding
> > for simply maintaining historical records was never great and now is in
> > danger of vanishing altogether.
> >
> > I came within an ace of becoming a Twain scholar myself, but I think the
> > money could have been better spent preserving and developing the records
> > of ordinary, unheralded early Californians than producing the umpteenth
> > edition of _Connecticut Yankee_ or, God forbid, _Joan of Arc_, however
> > erudite. Also, my information on this situation is largely by
> > word-of-mouth, and I'd like anyone who knows better to set me straight.
> >
> > Will Bagley
> >
> >
>
Charles Faulhaber
The Bancroft Library
UC Berkeley, CA