One of the main difficulties that exists in connection with the S.W. Erdnase authorship problem is that which I alluded to in an earlier post.
Here I will state clearly why the identity of S.W. Erdnase will (probably) never be demonstrated clearly and to the satisfaction of 99 out of 100 people, under the current circumstances–other than by pure luck.
1. Not enough people are interested in doing any research at all on the subject.
2. Not enough people are interested in doing the right kind of research.
3. Not enough people are interested in doing “off-the-beaten-path” research.
4. Sorry, but not enough people know how to reason effectively and draw sound conclusions.
5. Too many people who are interested in the subject do not have a command of the basic relevant facts.
6. A lot of the Erdnase authorship-research is of the right kind, but it often stops short (the follow-through on decent leads is often missing).
7. This may be a little subjective, but I think that a lot of people have a great deal of difficulty in determining when a proposition has been “proven” (yes, I know that the word can have many meanings). By the way, if anyone ever comes up with an incontrovertible case that S.W. Erdnase was a certain person, the one forwarding the candidate will not have to engage in any discussions of standards of proof–such discussions immediately imply the existence of a case that many people are going to reject.
Basically, though, not enough research is being done.
Another major reason is that there are not enough “obvious” sources of helpful information. If there were, then maybe answers would be found with the same kind of research that is going on now.
The only way that any really firm answers–I mean plain, unequivocal evidence that would be accepted by 99 out of 100 people–will be found (under the present state of things) is probably going to be by pure, blind, dumb luck.
—Tom Sawyer
October 1, 2012
The Armchair Bibliographer 