In my Mark Twain Forum post yesterday, about the British court definition of "historian", I wrote that I "believe secondary sources . . . should be carefully considered." Shortly after sending the post, the mailman delivered "The Mark Twain Annual", which provides a case in point for that statement. In the Annual, Carolyn Gratton Eichin's "From Sam Clemens to Mark Twain" mentions "...historian Effie Mona Mack brought scholarly attention to...." While calling Dr. Mack scholarly and a historian, Ms. Eichin appropriately questions Dr. Mack's finding that George Cassidy and Mark Twain were friends. And that provides an opportunity to discuss secondary works. There is some value, mostly in her endnote sources, to consulting Dr. Mack's 1847 book "Mark Twain in Nevada". Too many of her "facts" are inaccurate or misleading. Dr. Mack, for example, says that in 1861 Gov. Nye of Nevada Territory appointed carpetbaggers to his administration, then lists the jobs, and states of birth for the appointees, ignoring the fact that some posts she lists were Lincoln's appointments, and that all of Nye's cabinet were men who had been in California for several years, and were already in Nevada Territory before Nye arrived. Few people populated the area before the Rush to Washoe that began in 1859, and Nye did secure appointment of one of that number. At one point Dr. Mack also lost track of her principal character, Sam Clemens. On page 73-74 she writes that Sam and Orion "decided to take up their lodging in a downstairs front bedroom in the Ormsby House. ... However, Sam soon moved upstairs and joined the "brigade" plebians." And finally, Dr. Mack tells us: "Since most of [the brigade] ate at Mrs. Bridget Murphy's boarding house, Orion and Sam did likewise." Neither Sam nor Twain, nor Orion, ever mention living in the O House. Indeed, Twain says just the opposite, referring to Mrs. M's "corral". "Boarding House: a house providing food and lodging for paying guests." Two pages later, on p. 76, Dr. Mack tells us of the escape of the Tarantula collection, and that "The tumultuous crash and the frightened shouts of Mrs. Murphy's boarders awakened her, too. In due time she fetched the lantern to ascertain the damage to her dormitory." "Mrs. Murphy's boarders?" The O House was managed by Gibson and Vance, across from the southwest corner of the Plaza, and Mrs. Murphy's boarding house was on the north side of the Plaza. To repeat: In her interesting article, Ms. Eichin appropriately does not "buy" Dr. Mack's tale without question. Dr. Mack's book, written without today's useful access to Internet searches, cannot be viewed as a scholarly work, and clearly does not meet the Historian criteria of the British judge. Robert E. (Bob) Stewart Carson City