Kurt, Regarding Twain's involvement in simplified spelling -- there are 3 articles from the New York Times dated March 12, 1906 Sept. 20, 1906 Dec. 10, 1907 The NY Times also ran a letter from Twain pertaining to his endorsement of the typewriter that Twain had written on March 19, 1875. This article from the NYT is dated Dec. 2, 1923. However, Twain doesn't identify the specific "first" manuscript. All the articles are available online via: http://www.tarleton.edu/activities/pages/facultypages/schmidt/nytindex.html Barb