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The New York Times, July 29, 1952

Mark Twain Party Verse Made Adlai Chaos Worse

By The Associated Press.

ST. LOUIS, July 28 - Adlai E. Stevenson of Illinois, the Democratic Presidential nominee, blames Mark Twain "for the confusion that exists as to how to pronounce my first name."

In a recent letter to Cyril Clemens, head of the International Mark Twain Society, he said:

"While my grandfather, Adlai E. Stevenson, was Vice President *** Mark Twain was at a luncheon where grandfather was a guest. The newspapers of the time quoted Mark Twain as follows on the pronunciation of my first name:

" 'Philologists sweat and lexicographers bray,
" 'But the best they can do is to call him Ad-lay.
" 'But at longshoremen's picnics, where accents are high,
" 'Fair Harvard's not present, so they call him Ad-lie.'

"Anyway, the correct pronunciation is 'Ad-lay,' although, to put it mildly, I have been called many things."

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