I greatly enjoyed the response to the review.  It often reminded me of
one of Graham Chapman's characters responding to a Monty Python skit.

On Thu, 2013-03-28 at 16:21 -0500, Tracy Wuster wrote:
> Hello all,
> 
> In "My Father Mark Twain," Clara tells the story of how Twain would
> write but not send letters to vent his anger.  She gives the example
> (p69-70) of a letter to a man who had written an unsigned review of
> Twain's Jamestown, N.Y. lecture in 1870.
> 
> Roughly 16 years later, this man wrote to Twain asking for help
> obtaining a consulship, to which Twain offered to instead provide a
> rope or a burial permit.  The critique of Twain's lecture is quite
> funny in how it so blatantly missed the point, and I would be tempted
> to call it a satire, if not for Twain's letter.
> 
> The review is on Stephen Railton's site (scroll down):
> 
> http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/onstage/sandrev4.html
> 
> Does anyone have any guesses on the identity of the reviewer?  I
> searched through the letters online at the MTP and didn't have any
> luck making the connection, so I thought I would seek out some help.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> 
> Tracy Wuster