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An examination of these modified versions of Twain's writing reveals how editors purged what they considered socially acceptable how they sought to improve Twain by substituting their words and phrases for his, and how they struggled to understand the way in which the rhythm ofTwain's style was intended to strike a listeners ear.2 Mark Twain, who felt strongly about the difference between the right word and the almost right word, exhibited his pride of authorship when, in Roughing It, he extended a mock apology for having so much information in the book. \"3 Twain could hardly have imagined that editors of elocutionary publications would not only appropriate one of the chapters in Roughing It, but also reduce the amount of information he had provided and alter the words he had chosen to record his \"several years of variegated vagabondizing. Giving Roorbach no more credit than Roorbach had given Howard, Dick & Fitzgerald retained Roorbachs subtitle and-apparently printing from Roorbachs plates-kept the Speechiana running heads and the misspelling of \"impressivenesss\" [sic] on page 83. [...]the cycle of American editions of an altered \"Buck Fanshaws Funeral\" that began with Clarence J. Howards version in 1872, ended in 1897 with an uncredited reprint of Howard s original effort.21 But \"Buck Fanshaws Funeral,\" as edited for reading aloud, was soon to cross the Atlantic. 8.R. A good idea of how an evening of recitations might be arranged can be found in Handfords Elmo's Model Speeches, where in the table of contents the first 372 pages are arranged in the form of a series of twelve \"programmes,\" each consisting of ten to eleven selections with an intermission in the middle.

\"3 In Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (188 5), Twain added mendacity to ineptitude with the king and the duke incorporating \"yellocution\" lessons and abysmal Shakespeare performances into their various scams.4 While not all elocutionists could properly suit the action to the word and the word to the action, competent professionals were in the public eye throughout Twain's life. Alexander Graham Bell's (1847-1922) career exemplifies the elocutionists' effort to make the study of voice and movement scientific.12 Bell closely studied the physiology of voice production, and his analytical approach to elocution led to better methods for teaching the deaf and eventually to the invention of the telephone. Despite the positive features of elocution, Twain remained skeptical.15 Elocutionist Franklin Haven Sargent tutored Twainâeuro™s lecture partner, George Washington Cable; Twain, with the goal of strengthening his voice before touring, also considered taking âeuroœa few lessonsâeuro from Sargent.16 But Twain had been unimpressed by the effect the training had on Cable and believed that Cableâeuro™s reading was marred by âeuroœself-complacency, sham feeling & labored artificiality.âeuro 17 Twain said of Cable, in what Bernard De Voto characterized as one of his eruptions, \"unhappily he prepared himself for his public work by taking lessons from a teacher of elocution, and so by the time he was ready to begin his platform work he was so well and thoroughly educated that he was merely theatrical. \"26 A more accurate guide to content of antebellum school exhibitions can be seen in Bronsons Elocution (1845), which includes \"Liberty or Death\" but offers \"Richard II\" as a more profound expression of grief and sorrow than Gay's talent allowed.27 David Clinton Owens has shown that the other pieces Twain included were properly contemporary.