> For God's sake John, Hush up!  I'm finishing a book on Sam and slavery and
I'm counting on this forgiving attitude holding a while longer.  That way if
I make a bunch of mistakes folk will let me slide like Ken.


A group of us got together just last week to discuss how we're going to
treat your book, Terrell. After much deliberation and a review of Barbara's
error list (which has grown by two since yesterday) we calculated the error
rate for Burns' film at one every ten minutes (we did not count the same
error twice even if Burns' repeated it twice, like the hogwash about Twain
often writing with his left hand when his right hand got tired). We will
each time ourselves as we read your book and calculate your error rate. If
you pad your text with enough filler, irrelevant photos, and some banjo
music, I think you're sure to beat Burns. But we'll be watching. I hope you
don't cave under this added pressure.

On another subject: I disagree with those who thought Burns dwelled on the
race issue too much. Yes, he had an agenda, and yes, it's PC, and yes it
distorts Twain's image by ignoring other things, and yes it's the same
agenda that he's slopped over all of his "documentaries" but in this case it
may be more helpful than harmful.

I've personally collected Twain since 1968, and I've bought and sold rare
books more than thirty years. I maintain a very large mailing list and have
attended and/or exhibited at every major bookfair since 1980, and many many
smaller ones. This has brought me into contact with a broad range of
characters. I've encountered a lot of people who, when they learn of my
Twain interest, make false assumptions about me, or worse, reveal ugly
things about themselves. It's a small but persistent percentage of those who
"admire" twain. Appalling as it may seem to many on this list there are
Twain collectors and "admirers" who are drawn to him because they think
Twain was a great racist. One young man who has told me that HF is the
greatest book ever written has also lectured me by phone and in person on
all the things that are wrong with niggers (his word, not mine). He has a
long list, and he clearly does not see the irony in HF. The racists that
I've encountered who think highly of Mark Twain run the gamut from
paternalistic old poops to the wild-eyed mean-spirited mentally ill. And the
ones I know about are, of course, only those who felt comfortable (or proud)
in making themselves known to me. I have also met many people who disapprove
of Twain because they think he was a racist. I do my best to deal with both
kinds, but I'm sad to report that the number of those who admire Twain as a
racist nearly equal those who disapprove of him. Of course, a balanced view
of Twain on race must acknowledge his racist attitudes prior to the Civil
War, his use of the word "nigger" in a letter after 1900, and some
paternalistic views expressed later in life --not just HF. And I wish Burns
had done that better. But as an antidote for those idiots who embrace Twain
as a literary affirmation of their own racist dogma, those Black faces that
spoke in Burns' film are refreshing and powerful. I hope his film reached a
lot of people who were not quite sure just what to think of Twain, and now
see him more clearly and fully(despite the factual errors that scholars are
entitled to nit-pick).

Kevin Mac Donnell
Mac Donnell Rare Books