Pond's datebook shows engagements in Grand Rapids (13 Dec) and then Toledo (15 Dec), no Muskegon: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/c6021d90-0ebd-0132-6b4f-58d385a7bbd0/book#page/27/mode/2up On Wed, Apr 8, 2020 at 4:54 AM Mac Donnell Rare Books < [log in to unmask]> wrote: > Good question. I looked at that earlier and contemporary papers put them > in Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. No mention of Muskegon. > > Kevin > @ > Mac Donnell Rare Books > 9307 Glenlake Drive > Austin TX 78730 > 512-345-4139 > Member: ABAA, ILAB, BSA > > You can browse our books at: > www.macdonnellrarebooks.com > > > ------ Original Message ------ > From: "JULES AUSTIN HOJNOWSKI" <[log in to unmask]> > To: [log in to unmask] > Sent: 4/8/2020 5:41:32 AM > Subject: Re: Mark Twain in Muskegon, MI > > >Hi > >Are there any newspapers from that time from around that area that might > have better info? > > > >:) > >Jules > > > > > >Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36> > >________________________________ > >From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Benjamin Griffin < > [log in to unmask]> > >Sent: Tuesday, April 7, 2020 6:26:05 PM > >To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> > >Subject: Re: Mark Twain in Muskegon, MI > > > >The plot thickens. Through the decency of the HathiTrust Library, which > has > >given the UC Libraries emergency access to online texts, I've been able to > >see In digital copies of the earliest printings of this lost letter. > > > >In Cyril Clemens's *Mark Twain, the Letter-Writer *(1932), the dateline is > >simply "*Michigan, Dec. 1884*." When Cyril Clemens printed this letter > >again in the *Mark Twain Quarterly *in 1941, the dateline had grown to > >read: "*Muskegon, Michigan, December 4, 1884*." > > > >There are two possibilities. Either Cyril returned to the manuscript > letter > >and transcribed it more fully than he had before, OR [a strong nudge here] > >he supplied "Muskegon" and "4" out of his own erratic brain. Since both > >"December 4" and "Muskegon," as Scott points out, make no sense, I think > >it's clear these details are mere invention. Later, no doubt, some well > >meaning person made a "correction" from 4 to 14, on the grounds that at > >least Clemens was *near *Muskegon on the latter date. Unluckily, they > >"corrected" without getting all the facts. (I think it's right to > emphasize > >again that, for the letters of years we haven't edited yet, MTPO > >information isn't as refined as it will be later.) > > > >So much for Mark Twain's phantom side-excursion to Muskegon! (Rabbit hole? > >. . . What rabbit hole?) > > > >Ben > > > -- Benjamin Griffin Associate Editor, Mark Twain Project The Bancroft Library University of California, Berkeley 94720-6000 (510) 664-4238