Sorry, not my intention at all.  Obviously the opposite is true--the MT
Prize is apparently not awarded posthumously--and so is in that sense like
the Nobels, which are not either.

The site does not say it specifically but it seems implied.  Every previous
winner has appeared at the program.

It does list 3 other dead Americans (besides Twain), however, who exemplify
the Prize:

Buster Keaton, Dorothy Parker, and Lenny Bruce.

Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Saint Louis University