Greg:

I don't believe it's an exact replication of Twain either.
But any license taken seems to serve the interest of being
both interesting and entertaining.

Hal Holbrook did his homework when he consulted Caroline  Harnsberger
and through her, I assume, arranged a meeting with Clara.

Also, if my memory serves, he had the opportunity to speak with Bim  Pond,
son, or grandson, I can't recall which, of James B. Pond, Twain's  lecture
tour booker/manager.  Some of Bim Pond's memories served to shape  and
perhaps confirm the relative accuracy of Holbrook's pitching, pace,
intonation,
and drawl from a source with first-hand information.

What a find it would be to discover a wax cylinder somewhere that  somehow
survived and could be confirmed as Twain's voice.  The value  of that would
tend to
conjure up Twain's musing on how much a soap bubble would cost if there
were
only one in the world.  (Those cylinders are apparently just  as delicate.)

But, as you rightly point out, history plays strange tricks.  Who  would
have
imagined
the other half of the HF manuscript would surface after so many  years?

Roger Durrett
Charlotte, NC