..what a remarkable story - thanks for sharing! I don't think Hal
Holbrook ever toured Germany, i would have loved to see him. He may
even have been a far distant relation; there is a story in the family
that some great x 4 or so uncle changed his name to Holbrook upon
arrival in the USA because people choked on the German "ch" and he
didn't like the idea of being called Hogbrook -- 
In the early 80s, there was a Twain impersonator on tour in Germany,
and i saw him but i don't remember who it was nor was the tour
particularly successful. At that time, nobody over here had ever heard
of living history presentations, and teachers of German would likely
have fainted at the idea of somebody impersonating Goethe or
Schiller... 

best
w



On Mon, 24 Jan 2022 07:12:55 -0500
 Warren Miller <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>Thank you for remembering Hal Holbook, Shelley.
>
>I had the good fortune to win a scholarship to attend Culver Military
>Academy starting in the fall of 1958.  It was a fabulous and
>life-changing
>experience. I graduated in 1961. Having graduated from Culver in 1944,
>Mr.
>Holbrook had preceded me there by seventeen years. I saw him perform
>once
>there and several more times over the years. The last time was in the
>early
>1990s when my beloved bride and I lived in Tulsa. Before the curtain
>went
>up that night, I sent a note to him backstage; on the back of my
>business
>card, I said I was a Culver graduate and asked him if he would do 'The
>War
>Prayer' which I had seen the first time at Culver more than thirty
>years
>before. I had read that he chose what he was going to do in a given
>performance as he went along, based on the audience's reaction to the
>choices he was making. Sure enough, near the end of the evening, he
>did the
>'The War Prayer.' It was even more spectacular and moving than I had
>remembered. I was thrilled.
>
>A couple of weeks later, I got a handwritten note from him in the
>mail. He
>thanked me for attending and said he hoped I enjoyed 'The War Prayer'.
>I
>was thrilled yet again and also humbled.
>
>What a wonderful, wonderful man. We lost a great American a year ago.
>May
>he rest in peace.
>
>Thank you again, Shelley.
>
>Warren Miller, CPA, CFA
>Lexington, Virginia
>
>On Sun, Jan 23, 2022 at 10:58 AM Shelley Fisher Fishkin <
>[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> One year ago today, on January 23rd, the world lost a gifted actor,
>a
>> brilliant scholar of Mark Twain, and a kind, generous, and caring
>human
>> being. Many of us on this list lost a  friend. Hal Holbrook Z”L —
>May his
>> memory be a blessing.
>>
>>
>> ===============================
>> Shelley Fisher Fishkin
>> Joseph S. Atha Professor of Humanities; Professor of English, and
>> Director of American Studies, Stanford University
>> Mail: Department of English, Bldg. 460, 450 Jane  Stanford Way,
>Stanford
>> University, Stanford, CA 94305-2087
>> https://english.stanford.edu/people/shelley-fisher-fishkin <
>> https://english.stanford.edu/people/shelley-fisher-fishkin>
>>


Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hochbruck
Dept. of English 
Centre for Security and Society
Albert Ludwigs University Freiburg
Rempart St. 15
D-79098 Freiburg
Germany