Many thanks, Kevin. I had no idea how much I didn't know about the printing of books! But I'm grateful to the one of fifty who altered that picture so that I've now learned more than I knew there was to know! Also, the Academia site has registered me among its members without my hardly being involved at all. I also divined who I knew who also belonged. Anyway, I'm so pleased to have this introduction into the variety of your output. THANKS. I expect to be reading more of it later. Arianne On Mon, Jul 22, 2013 at 6:01 AM, Kevin Mac Donnell < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Sorry about that Arianne-- > > Both websites are badly designed, clearly the result of nerdy tech types > being allowed to organize the design without input from actual people who > would be using the sites. The ABAA website is currently being redesigned. > The academia website is hopelessly clumsy, the sort of thing you'd expect > if > alien life-forms from another planet tried to imitate Facebook. The > concepts > of targeting audiences, market-testing, and user friendliness were ignored. > > Here are the links: > > http://hq.abaa.org/pubs/twain4.html > > This is the portion of my article about Huck Finn. > > http://independent.academia.edu/KevinMacDonnell > > As you scroll down the list of books, articles, and talks at academia the > entire 1998 article is titled "Collecting Mark Twain" and you can then > scroll through it to the section on Huck Finn. There is also a 2008 update > that has "Update" somewhere in the title. > > Kevin > @ > Mac Donnell Rare Books > 9307 Glenlake Drive > Austin TX 78730 > 512-345-4139 > Member: ABAA, ILAB > ************************* > You may browse our books at > www.macdonnellrarebooks.com > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Arianne" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Monday, July 22, 2013 12:32 AM > Subject: Re: Illustration problem: true? > > > > Thanks for your details. I wasn't able to find your article on either of > > the links you gave. Not qualified to join one, and got to your listing > in > > the Bookseller one, but couldn't figure out how to get to your article. > > > > Sigh. > > > > Do you think illustration given in the article I sent was the original > one > > or just made up to make a point? > > > > Arianne Laidlaw > > > > > > On Sun, Jul 21, 2013 at 7:33 PM, Kevin Mac Donnell < > > [log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > >> The basic outline of the story is true, but that writer garbles his > >> facts. > >> Only the earliest prospectuses contained the ribald drawing, and sales > >> agents were instructed to remove the page and mail it to the publisher > or > >> else their orders would not be honored. It was not an act of revenge by > >> Kemble for rejected drawings. No copies of the published book have the > >> ribald state of the drawing and there is no evidence that any ever did. > >> Copies were corrected before some sheets were collated and sewn (by > >> replacing the entire gathering in which the illustration appeared), and > >> others were corrected after some sets of sheets had been collated and > >> sewn > >> (by use of a cancel) but before any sheets were cased into bindings. > Some > >> sets of sheets that were set aside very early for leather bindings > before > >> the illustration plate was altered by somebody in the print shop using > an > >> awl actually have the first state of the plate before the alteration was > >> made. All copies in the blue and green cloth bindings have the corrected > >> state of the illustration. No copies of the book have the ribald state. > >> > >> It's a bit of an overstatement to claim it nearly derailed the book. It > >> generated some publicity and gave the publisher a chance to wax > >> sanctimonious about correcting the problem. > >> > >> It's not a new discovery either. Twain's bibliographer Merle Johnson > >> wrote > >> about it in 1910, 1935, and 1939, and so did others, and it's recorded > in > >> the Bibliography of American Literature, volume II (1957). > >> > >> I wrote about it at length, correcting errors of fact and speculative > >> nonsense, in a 1998 article in Firsts Magazine whose text you can access > >> at > >> abaa.org or through my articles at academia.edu. > >> > >> Kevin > >> @ > >> Mac Donnell Rare Books > >> 9307 Glenlake Drive > >> Austin TX 78730 > >> 512-345-4139 > >> Member: ABAA, ILAB > >> ************************* > >> You may browse our books at > >> www.macdonnellrarebooks.com > >> > >> ----- Original Message ----- > >> From: "Arianne" <[log in to unmask]> > >> To: <[log in to unmask]> > >> Sent: Sunday, July 21, 2013 6:54 PM > >> Subject: Illustration problem: true? > >> > >> > >> >I hadn't heard this before, so don't know if it is true or not. > >> > > >> > > >> > http://mentalfloss.com/article/31107/crudely-drawn-penis-almost-derailed-huckleberry-finn > >> > > >> > -- > >> > Arianne Laidlaw > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > ----- > >> > No virus found in this message. > >> > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > >> > Version: 2013.0.3349 / Virus Database: 3204/6508 - Release Date: > >> > 07/21/13 > >> > > >> > >> > >> > >> ----- > >> No virus found in this message. > >> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > >> Version: 2013.0.3349 / Virus Database: 3204/6508 - Release Date: > 07/21/13 > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > Arianne Laidlaw A '58 > > > > > > > > ----- > > No virus found in this message. > > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > > Version: 2013.0.3349 / Virus Database: 3204/6510 - Release Date: 07/22/13 > > > > > > ----- > No virus found in this message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 2013.0.3349 / Virus Database: 3204/6510 - Release Date: 07/22/13 > -- Arianne Laidlaw A '58