"Rather than open that issue to public debate, I'll restrict the voting to myself." Always a good choice Kent. Susan Susan Bailey Co author The Twain Shall Meet <http://www.amazon.com/Twain-Shall-Meet-Granddaughter-Gabrilowitsch/dp/1499799497/ref=sr_1_1/191-7847938-3534132?ie=UTF8&qid=1415889321&sr=8-1&keywords=the+twain+shall+meet+susan+bailey> Twain Page <https://www.facebook.com/marktwainsgranddaughter> www.marktwainonline.com Greenville, SC On Wed, Mar 11, 2015 at 9:32 PM, Kent Rasmussen <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Today, Kevin Mac Donnell and I discussed the dedications Sam Clemens > wrote for his books. When he mentioned that Sam's daughter Jean was the > only family member to whom Sam never dedicated a book, I immediately > checked the entry on "dedications" I had written for _Critical Companion > to Mark Twain (the revised edition of _Mark Twain A to Z_). I was > pleased to be able to one-up Kevin by telling him my book said that Sam > dedicated _Tom Sawyer Abroad_ to Jean. That didn't sound quite right to > Kevin, so we both ran to our various early editions of TSA to confirm > what I had written. Result: Neither of us could find any dedication in > any early copy of TSA. Oops ... that was embarrassing; maybe I should > have kept my mouth shut. I then did what any scholar who finds an error > in one of his books would do: I looked for someone else to blame. > Happily, I found at least a partial explanation of my apparent error in > the 1982 University of California "Mark Twain Library" edition of the > novella, in which these words face page 1: > > To > Jean Clemens > with the affectionate admiration > of her Papa > > Where, I wondered did that come from? It's not in the 1980 > Iowa-California omnibus edition of Tom Sawyer books, which like the > later Mark Twain Library edition of TSA was edited by John C. Gerber. > Gerber's explanatory note on page 178 and Robert Hirst's note on texts > on page 193 of the latter edition provide the answer. Sam wrote the > dedication for the book but didn't get it to his publishers in time to > be used. In a letter to Livy of April 16, 1894, he explained that his > failure was due to both Webster's and Chatto's editions coming out much > sooner than he had expected. He added that he had instructed Websterco's > president, Frederick Hall, "to see to it that the second edition > contains it [the dedication]." Unfortunately, Websterco went bust before > a second edition of TSA could be made. Sam's instruction to Hall was > then apparently forgotten until his letter to Livy was noticed around > 1981, in time for the Mark Twain Library edition. > > My reason for posting this note is to ask if anyone has ever seen the > dedication to Jean in _any_ edition of TSA published before 1982. > Meanwhile, I'll ponder the question of whether what I wrote for > _Critical Companion_ is correct or incorrect. Rather than open that > issue to public debate, I'll restrict the voting to myself. >