Found a note (150.1-2) in the Autobiography that "Clemens was hired as 
the local reporter for the San Francisco Morning Call in June 1864."  
Twain says that in 1865 the editor "invited me to resign."

Tom

Gretchen Martin wrote:

>Twain wrote for the San Francisco Daily Alta California in the mid60s but t=
>hat would have been before Hearst got into the industry, and I don't think =
>Hearst had any connection to the paper. =20
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of bobgill2@VERI=
>ZON.NET
>Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2012 9:02 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Hearst and Twain
>
>  
>
>>This morning the San Francisco Chronicle, which has become a Hearst=20
>>paper, ran an article about their 125 years in the newspaper business=20
>>and cited writers who had worked for them, including Mark Twain.
>>Does anyone know what in particular Twain wrote for William Randoph Hearst=
>>    
>>
>?
>
>In the 1860s he did some writing for the Dramatic Chronicle (or some simila=
>r name, if that's not it), which I believe *became* today's Chronicle. But =
>I don't know of any connection that paper had to Hearst. As far as I know, =
>the only San Francisco paper he ran during his lifetime was the Examiner, w=
>hich his father had bought sometime in the 1880s. Hearst later acquired pap=
>ers in Chicago, New York and elsewhere, so it's possible that Mark Twain di=
>d write for one of his papers at some point, but I don't believe he wrote a=
>nything for a San Francisco paper owned by Hearst.
>
>-- Bob G.
>
>  
>