Good Morning Everyone,

I teach 9th and 11th Grade English at this oldest Catholic school in New Jersey.

We have a new short story book and it excerpts the "Whitewashing" chapter from Tom Sawyer.  This is the first year that I taught the chapter and gave a background on Twain based on my experiences at Elmira and Hannibal.

The students loved it, and many are now reading the entire book for their required outside reading project.  Many are also choosing to read "Roughing It"!  They ask me to play the music from the new Mark Twain CD from his Boyhood Museum during our weekly vocabulary tests!

I thought you would appreciate that I have had at least five students come running up to my classroom to tell me today is Mark Twain's birthday!  What a joy!

John Pascal

Seton Hall Preparatory School

West Orange, NJ
On Nov 29, 2011, at 8:42 PM, Harris, Susan Kumin wrote:

> Thanks, everyone!  I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for wax cylinders!  Bes=
> t,  --s
> 
> Susan K. Harris
> 
> Hall Professor of American Literature
> 
> University of Kansas
> 
> Author of God's Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines, 1898-1902
> 
> ________________________________________
> From: Mark Twain Forum [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Effgen, A. B. [abeff=
> [log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 6:51 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Twain Recording?
> 
> I did work out some of this story, with the help of Barb and Kevin, awhile =
> =3D
> back. Short answer is there are no known recordings, but if anyone finds a =
> =3D
> Bettlini cylinder of singer Nellie Melba you'll hear Mark Twain at the end =
> =3D
> of it.
> 
> More to come.
> 
> ~+~+~+~+~
> Mr. A. B. Effgen
> Research Associate
> Research Systems and Funding Information
> Office of Sponsored Programs (CRC)
> Boston University
> 25 Buick Street
> Boston, MA 02215
> ph:   (617) 353-4365
> fax:  (617) 353-6660
> 
> On Nov 29, 2011, at 7:39 PM, "Harold Bush" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Hi Sue, those Edison recording were destroyed in a fire, and as far as is
>> known, no verified recordings of MT have survived.
>> =3D20
>> I would add that Yale does have one recording, believed to be William
>> Gillette (I think), who was an impersonator who know Twain personally and
>> was supposedly quite accurate in his mimicry.  There must be others of hi=
> =3D
> m,
>> which I would liken to someone like Rich Little doing Johnny Carson.  i.e=
> =3D
> .
>> pretty accurate.  It is plausible that it is not Gillette, and in fact MT
>> himself; I remember hearing that from someone in the Beinecke at Yale man=
> =3D
> y
>> years back.  They just had no way of knowing.  My guess =3D3D it is also
>> plausible that somehwere out there, somehow, a recording of MT may exist,
>> like that old manuscript of Huck Finn....
>> =3D20
>> I also vaguely recall having a discussion on this LIST long ago, and I'd
>> love to hear other views.
>> =3D20
>> --Hal B.
>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>> =3D20
>> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Harris, Susan Kumin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> =3D20
>>> Today a colleague asked me if there were any extant recordings of Twain'=
> =3D
> s
>>> v=3D3D
>>> oice, and I realized that I have a memory of someone talking about an
>>> Ediso=3D3D
>>> n recording--but also that it may have been destroyed.  Can someone set =
> =3D
> me
>>> =3D3D
>>> straight on this?
>>> =3D20
>>> =3D20
>>> =3D20
>>> Thank you!  --susan harris
>>> =3D20
>> --=3D20
>> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
>> Professor of English
>> Saint Louis University
>> St. Louis, MO  63108
>> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
>> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>=

John Raymond Pascal, M.B.A., M.A.

48 Grover Lane
West Caldwell, NJ 07006

(973) 226-0502 home
(201) 704-8458 cell

[log in to unmask]