Hi, Joe, In "The Characterization of Jim in HF" (19thC Lit 43.3 [Dec.1988]), Forrest Robinson credits Spencer Brown's 1967 article, "HF for Our Time" (_Michigan Quarterly Review_ 6) as the first scholarly argument that Jim deliberately conceals the corpse's identity to keep Huck with him. As I recall, Thomas Weaver and Merline Williams had a good discussion in "MT's Jim: Identity as an Index to Cultural Attitudes" in one of the 1980 issues of _ALR_. James M. Cox's "A Hard Book to Take" is notable for suggesting that Jim may have acted from both self interest and parental concern, which seems to me an important and difficult concept, that they're not mutually exclusive readings. I know there are others, but these come to mind. Best, Sharon