Much to my surprise, I found the article I wrote for the Walt Whitman Encyclopedia on Twain and Whitman: CLEMENS, SAMUEL LONGHORN [MARK TWAIN] (1835-1910) Clemens, popular for his fiction written under the pseudonym "Mark Twain," and Whitman are often compared as vernacular writers of nineteenth century American democracy. Clemens' Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) is often considered the literary companion piece to Leaves of Grass, both works subjects of book bannings that were eventually hailed as turning points in American literature. Comparisons include the authors' similar backgrounds, time spent as apprentice printers, their personas as self-made, rough-hewn artists, and their sympathy with downtrodden peoples. Both championed American idioms and speech and the individual against conformist society. Yet, the two showed only perfunctory interest in each other. Whitman said Twain "might have been something. He comes near being something: but he never arrives." In turn, Twain noted "If I've become a Whitmanite I'm sorry--I never read 40 lines of him in my life." This claim is probably exaggeration; Clemens' personal copy of Leaves of Grass contains many marginal comments by Clemens, and in 1897 Clemens'-owned Charles L. Webster and Co published Selected Poems, by Walt Whitman with Whitman's special permission. Clemens provided financial support for Whitman on several occasions including $100 for a horse and buggy and $200 for a cottage to "make the splendid old soul comfortable." In 1889, Clemens sent Whitman a complimentary copy of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In 1884, Clemens grouped Whitman with other writers in an anecdote, and he attended Whitman's 1887 eulogy for Lincoln at Madison Square Theater. His ambivalent feelings about Whitman were reflected on Whitman's seventieth birthday when Clemens sent an impersonal, ambiguous telegram and in an unfinished essay "The Walt Whitman Controversy" in which Clemens worried about Leaves of Grass sexual frankness saying the book should not be read by children. Bibliography Gribben, Alan. Mark Twain's Library: A Reconstruction. Boston: G.K. Hall. 1980. Kaplan, Justin. "Starting from Paumanok . . . and from Hannibal: Whitman and Mark Twain." Confrontation. Vol. 27-28 (1984) 338-347. Sorry for the lack of details--the article had a word count, but I do recall finding information in Twain letters and notebooks. This was maybe 17 years ago.