I would be grateful for the advice of list owners on the following
question:  I am collaborating with the Mark Twain Project at the
University in California (Berkeley) in an attempt to save the Project,
which risks having to close its doors on July 1 if additional outside
sources of funding are not located, since the National Endowment for the
Humanities is cutting back its support for the Project.
 
Our plan is to send the following plea for help to relevant lists, and
so I would be grateful for the opinions of list owners regarding the
appropriateness of this.  I know that it is _not_ appropriate to
advertise goods and services on lists, but I am hoping that this is a
different matter, since the Mark Twain Project is a non-profit, academic
organization.  The primary aim of the plea for help is to gather
information on potential sources of funding, but the person from the
Project who wrote this memo also suggests that individuals may donate to
the Project.  Before we distribute the message, I thought I should
solicit the opinions of the subscribers here, since this message might
ultimately end up on some of your lists.  I should stress that we do not
plan to send out the message indiscriminately, but instead have been
selecting what we hope are appropriate arenas, e.g., literature lists,
archivists' lists, American history lists, etc.
 
The message is appended below.  Please reply to the list, or to me
directly, and I will summarize later.  Your advice is much appreciated.
 
Regards,
Taylor Roberts
York University (Canada)   <[log in to unmask]>
                           <[log in to unmask]>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
NEWS RELEASE:  FEDERAL CUTBACKS THREATEN MARK TWAIN
 
Reports of the demise of U.C. Berkeley's MARK TWAIN PROJECT may not have
been greatly exaggerated.  Budget cuts at the National Endowment for the
Humanities have threatened the future of the Project, an undertaking
scholars say is one of the most ambitious in American literary scholarship.
 
The Bancroft Library collection represents one of the most important
repositories of Mark Twain in the world.  The NEH's latest funding proposal
may compromise the efforts of Berkeley scholars to amass an exhaustive,
authoritative edition of the nineteenth-century American writer's novels,
essays and letters.
 
The recent proposal requires funding support from private sources.  Help
is needed in locating organizations or individuals who may be able to
provide this support.  All donations will be matched dollar for dollar by
the NEH.
 
As we do not subscribe to this list, please e-mail us directly at --
[log in to unmask]
 
If you would like to help support the MARK TWAIN PROJECT, you may send a
tax-deductible check of any size made out the FRIENDS OF THE BANCROFT
LIBRARY.  Send to Robert Hirst, General Editor, Mark Twain Project, 480
Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720.
 
From all of us at the Project, thank you.