Steve,

The "recently discovered" hype is just part of the publicity
surrounding the dramatization "Is He Living or Is He Dead?" which
was based on Mark Twain's short story that appeared in _Cosmopolitan_.
Scholars have been aware of both the short story as well as Mark Twain's
dramatization of it for a number of years.  Both are discussed in
R. Kent Rasmussen's _Critical Companion to Mark Twain, Vol. 1_,
pp. 263-266.

The story "Is He Living or Is He Dead?" was also reprinted in _The Man
That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays_ (1900).  The play based
on the story is not "recently discovered" and some of the current
news reports do concede that it had been discussed in academic
circles in previous years. Carl Dolmetsch published a brief summary
of the play in his book _Our Famous Guest_ in 1992.

Publicity managers and newspaper reporters sometimes get over zealous
in describing something as "recently discovered" because it may be new
to the general public even though it is not new to those who have written
about it and studied it in years past.  It is part of creating the
sell and excitement for the product.

Mark Dawidziak's review of Mark Twain's version of the play
which was published by University of California Press is online
at:

http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/IsHeDead.html


Barb