> then I asked Larry McMurtry about some historical antecedents for some
> of his novels and
> he sent me out to buy $ 2K in rare books...

Drew,

Consider yourself lucky for him to tell you now. Tracking down sources
for Mark Twain can be a bit more expensive, might even go to the extent
of spending a lifetime and relocating residence to be closer to the
library -- or the increased availablity of full text obscure sources
online. Google project to put some 70,000 books frm Stanford library
full text online, or Questia w/ 50,000 texts, or the Cornell library
project, or the Smithsonian, or U of Virginia -- so you might look for
McMurty's list online before paying out the nose -- though holding a
rare book is an especial pleasure and can be a very good investment.

I'm still looking into what happened to Twain's collection of books...
there are folks out and about keeping track and trying to relocate his
own copies, usually identified by the penmanship of marginalia and or
indentification of a piece in one of his works with a source by sheer
power of guided yet random sorting. At the Hartford house in CT I've
been curious to what extent replication of the collection of books in
the dimly lit interior is authentic to Twain's reading... or are they
just old books like you would find as interior decoration in a tavern? I
keep asking around for someone, there has to be someone, who handled
selecting the books and putting them on the shelves. I'd like to ask a
few questions. I suspect that the truth, as in many historic
interpretations, would break down an illusion.

Then again, I was in Lyndhurst recently in Tarrytown in the library and
asked about the provenance of the books and was curtly informed that
they were Jay Gould's books -- prior to that I did not even know that it
was Jay Gould's house (I wander around aimlessly quite well.). A suppose
it was a comment on how if one manages to not lose their money in
typesetting machines and other wild-ass ventures that it is more likely
that one will not only retain the house within the family, but not have
to sell off the reading material. (Though at current rate of consumption
I doubt jc will be able to retain his Sears catalogs forever.) I'm not
aware, though, of Jay Gould having writ anything much worth reading.

On another note, I heard on the radio recently an interview of a
biographer of Madame Cure who remarked that Doctor Cure's papers had to
be de-radiated, which was paid for by her daughter, and that the private
papers were held in seclusion for 60 years.

][<

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