At 01:49 PM 10/11/2009, Geoffrey Layton wrote:
>In this week’s edition of The New Yorker, there 
>is an article that includes these two quotes 
>about Larry Summers:  “According to a friend of 
>Summers’s, Harvard had wanted . . . Two 
>questions arise from these quotes.  First 
>involves the formation of the possessive with a 
>proper name ending in "s." The writer adds “…’s” 
>to Summers’s name in the possessive case - but 
>shouldn't the possessive be Summers' - or didn't it used to be?

DD: Varies by the style book of the publication.

>Second, why is the possessive necessary at 
>all?  Why not “friend of Summers” . . .

DD: Would you say, "A former friend of I? A 
former friend of me?" I suspect you would use the 
possessive first singular. "A former friend of mine."

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