PARTNERING ORGANIZATIONS
Buffalo
and Erie County Public Library
The
Library Foundation of Buffalo and Erie County
The
Poetry/Rare Books Collection, State University of New York at Buffalo
Mark Twain Foundation
Mark Twain Project
Harry
Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
Kennedy,
Stoeckl & Martin, P.C.
John R.
Oishei Foundation
The Atlantic Monthly
W.W. Norton
& Company
Buffalo and Erie County Public Library
The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library (B&ECPL) has a long association with the writings of one of America’s most revered authors, Mark Twain. In 1885, the Young Men’s Association, the B&ECPL’s predecessor, received the second half of the original manuscript of Twain’s recently published and controversial novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Not until 103 years later would the two halves be reunited in Buffalo following a series of misadventures. During that time, the B&ECPL had amassed and continues to develop a special collection of English and foreign language editions of the novel as well as other Twain memorabilia. The manuscript along with the accompanying collection is housed in the Central Library’s Mark Twain Room. Due to this history and strong interest, the B&ECPL is the ideal institution to present the Mark Twain Writing Competition "A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage" to Twain enthusiasts world-wide.
Comprised of the Central Library in downtown Buffalo, 15 city branches, 36 contract libraries and mobile and outreach services, the B&ECPL strives to enrich the lives of Erie County community members by providing superior services, responsive staff, dynamic collections and access to technology. The B&ECPL’s Grosvenor Rare Book Room consists of significant collections of Americana, early printed books, Bibles, Shaker literature, juvenile titles, anti-slavery literature, local history, Roycroft publications and some 5,000 literary and historic manuscripts and letters. Established in 1944, it was one of the first rare book collections in an American public library.
The Library Foundation of Buffalo and Erie County
The Library Foundation of Buffalo and Erie County is providing the necessary private funding to underwrite the competition’s expected costs. Support for the electronic conversion of Mark Twain’s original manuscript of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to CD-ROM was also secured by the Library Foundation.
Established in 1993, the Foundation is an independent, not-for-profit corporation chartered for public service. It provides private, financial support to the B&ECPL. The Foundation furthers the Library’s educational purpose by using innovative methods to provide for special projects not possible through Erie County government funding.
The Poetry/Rare Books Collection, State University of New York at Buffalo
The Poetry/Rare Books Collection housed at the State University of New York at Buffalo is responsible for the digital production elements of the competition as well as assistance with contest logistics. The Collection is also currently producing the B&ECPL’s CD-ROM edition of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn manuscript.
The Poetry/Rare Books Collection, under the direction of Curator Robert J. Bertholf, is renowned for its invaluable manuscript materials, including James Joyce’s Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, and for its digital publication expertise.
The Mark Twain Foundation is a perpetual charitable trust located in New York City, which possesses the publication rights to all of Mark Twain’s writings unpublished at his death. It is the successor to a trust created by Mark Twain’s will for the benefit of his sole surviving child, Clara Clemens Samossoud. The income from the Mark Twain Foundation is to be used for, among other things, "enabling mankind to appreciate and enjoy the works of Mark Twain." The Mark Twain Foundation and the B&ECPL were partners in negotiating publication of the "Comprehensive Edition" of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published by Random House, Inc. in 1996. The Twain Foundation, through its co-trustee Richard A. Watson, has worked amicably with the Library’s legal counsel on many matters since that time and is now pleased to license the B&ECPL to digitally publish "A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage" and to join with the B&ECPL in a consultative capacity to again bring the work of Mark Twain to a wide public. The Twain Foundation retains the copyright to "A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage."
The Mark Twain Papers of the Bancroft Library at the University of California, Berkeley, commonly known as the Mark Twain Project, is universally regarded as a premier authority in Mark Twain scholarship. Under its general editor, Robert H. Hirst, its editions of Twain’s works regularly receive acclamation. By agreement with the Mark Twain Foundation, the Mark Twain Project possesses the exclusive license to publish previously unpublished works of Mark Twain. The B&ECPL is therefore, honored that both the Twain Foundation and Twain Project have agreed to provide the digital and print publication rights to "A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage" and to join with the B&ECPL as consulting partners in this endeavor.
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin
Considered one of the world’s finest cultural archives, the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center houses 30 million literary manuscripts, one million rare books, five million photographs and over 100,000 works of art. Highlights include the Gutenberg Bible (c. 1450), the world’s first photograph (c. 1826), important paintings by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera and major manuscript collections of James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, Isaac Bashevis Singer and Tennessee Williams to name but a few. The Center is used extensively for research by scholars from around the world and presents numerous exhibitions and events each year showcasing its treasures.
The Ransom Center has provided the original manuscript of "A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage" to the Mark Twain Project and it will be used as the basis for the text in the publication of the short story by The Atlantic Monthly and W.W. Norton & Company. Twain’s manuscript is part of the Ellery Queen Collection of Mystery and Detective Fiction that includes works by Edgar Allan Poe and Arthur Conan Doyle among many others. It is 89 half sheets of paper, bound in brown morocco leather and signed Mark Twain. Other Twain material is housed at the Ransom Center including correspondence and photographs. In addition, the manuscript will be on display in our year-long blockbuster exhibition "From Gutenberg to Gone With the Wind: Treasures from the Ransom Center" at the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin from May 2001-May 2002.
Kennedy, Stoeckl & Martin, P.C.
Established in 1899, Kennedy, Stoeckl & Martin, P.C. of Buffalo, New York, focuses on educational and not-for-profit law and has served as legal counsel and literary agent for the B&ECPL since 1988. Patrick E. Martin, Esq. represented the B&ECPL in the landmark case Buffalo and Erie County Public Library vs. County of Erie, establishing the administrative autonomy of public libraries under New York State law; obtained publication by Random House, Inc. of the "Comprehensive Edition" of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, containing previously unpublished material from newly discovered portions of the manuscript; and obtained rights to "A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage" for the B&ECPL and secured publication of the story by The Atlantic Monthly and W.W. Norton & Company, which will provide royalty revenues until 2026.
Kennedy, Stoeckl & Martin is also a regular sponsor of the Library Foundation of Buffalo and Erie County’s Grosvenor Concert Series, offered each fall and spring. The Grosvenor Concert Series is in its 34th year of bringing free musical events in all genres to the public.
John
R. Oishei Foundation
The John R. Oishei Foundation is committed to enhancing the quality of life for Buffalo
area residents by supporting medical research, health care, education and the cultural,
social, civic and other charitable needs of the community.
The Foundation was
established in 1940 by John R. Oishei, founder of Trico Products Corporation, one of the
world's leading manufacturers of windshield wiper systems.
The Foundation believes
this project is an efficient use of regional resources that will benefit our community and
will enhance globally the image of the Library and of Buffalo
W. W. Norton & Company, the oldest and largest publishing house owned wholly by its employees, strives to carry out the imperative of its founder to "publish books not for a single season, but for the years" in the areas of fiction, nonfiction and poetry. Since its founding in 1923, Norton has grown to include a well-respected college textbook department, a new and flourishing professional books program, as well as a strong general interest list that includes such best-selling authors as Patrick O'Brian, Stephen Jay Gould, Irvine Welsh, and Seamus Heaney. Norton now publishes approximately 400 books annually in hardcover and paperback.
Norton will publish Mark Twain's "A Murder, A Mystery and a Marriage" in a gift edition in September, 2001, with illustrations by artist Peter de Sève. Peter de Sève's illustrations have appeared on the cover of the New Yorker, Time and Newsweek, and he has created characters for Disney Feature Animation and Dreamworks, as well as for other publications and studios.
The
Atlantic Monthly
The Atlantic Monthly, which will publish the full text of Mark Twain's story
"A Murder, A Mystery, and a Marriage" in its July/August (2001) issue, has been
one of America's premier literary, political, and reportorial magazines since before the
Civil War. The Atlantic was the first to bring to public attention some of the greatest
names in American letters-including Mark Twain, who was befriended and published by the
magazine's third editor, William Dean Howells. It was Howells who encouraged Twain in the
unusual literary venture that ultimately gave rise to "A Murder, A Mystery, and A
Marriage." The Atlantic Monthly today enjoys a circulation of nearly half a million.
The editors are delighted to be publishing a story the magazine originally commissioned,
even if 125 years after the fact.