On 2/23/06 3:56 PM, "Jerome Loving" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> 2)  Is there an extant audio recording of Twain's voice?

This has been discussed before on the LIST.  I will not rehash in its
entirety but the answer is almost certainly no.  Supposedly some of contents
of the cylinders used when he did record his voice survived but most people
think that nothing survived.  I believe those materials were destroyed in a
fire.

There is a tape version of something at Yale but opinions vary as to what
that something is.  Most consider it the voice of a mimic, one who knew
Twain or had heard him speak (like Gillette [sp?]).

On the other hand consider the manuscript of HUCK FINN.  Who knows what
might turn up some day.

Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Saint Louis University