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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Tue, 17 Dec 1996 11:01:17 -0500
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     Regarding the "Cincinnati" quote:

     In her recently released book, _Lighting Out for the
Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture_
(Oxford University Press, 1997 {issued November 1996}), Shelley
Fisher Fishkin devotes several pages to Twain quotations and
misattributions. On pages 133-137, Dr. Fishkin discusses several
quotations many of which Mark Twain never said including,
unfortunately, "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in
Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times." It
is included in a list that the Mark Twain Project compiled of
misattributed quotes they are often asked to run down.

However, Dr. Fishkin does offer a glimmer of hope for those
disappointed that Twain "never said it": "Twain gave so many
interviews to so many journalists, and had so many conversations
recorded by so many acquaintances, that the jury is always out,
so to speak, on these apocryphal attributions. But for the
moment, at least, we can't link them to Twain" (136).

     In her meticulous notes, Dr. Fishkin cites the following:

Roland De Wolk, "Twainisms That Ain't: Hannibal Sage Gets Credit
for Too Much." _Oakland Tribune_, August 4, 1991, pp. A3-4. See
also Ken Kashiwahara, interview with Robert Hirst on "World News
Tonight with Peter Jennings," ABC News, Oct. 22, 1991; and Ralph
Keyes, "The Twain Syndrome," in _Nice Guys Finish Seventh": False
Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations_
(New York: HarperCollins, 1992).

KB

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