[texhax] undefined control sequence with mla bibliography style

[Christopher W. Ryan]

I'm new to LaTeX on Linux, relatively new to Linux, in fact.  Running 
Libranet 2.8.1, with tetex, using gvim as editor.  I read the guidance 
on ctan.org on how to install new packages, and I installed mla style (I 
think I did it properly.)

When I process my text file, containing just one reference to a book 
(it's a junk file that I'm just learning on.)  The first latex run gets 
me an error message, something along the lines of "undefined control 
sequence at end of line . . .  /protect /author /citeyear. . ."

then I run bibtex from the command line in a terminal window.  Then I go 
back and run latex twice more.

The result is *almost* what I want.  Citation in text reads [Saarni 
1999], but the bibliography entry reads something like 
"[Saarni1999][Saarni1999] C Saarni, Development (so on and so forth)" 
In other words, the cite key is listed, twice, in the bibliography.

Any advice?

Thanks.

--Chris Ryan