Thanks Barbara,

I was just planning to pass this information along to a group of
elderly-homers in Sacramento whom I speak to regularly about MT. But when
Twain affirms, "The story lacks a good deal in the way of facts," he could
be talking about any one of his books. (As my subscript relates.) But my
current curiosity is this: I have, and almost read, all MT's books, have
several first editions, and have been a member of the MT Forum for at
least 5 years and have never heard of, or seen referenced,  "Advice to
Little Girls. "Marvelous! Twain at this best. Who's keeping  this  under
wraps?

JERRY VORPAHL

"I'm not one who, when giving my opinion, confine myself to the facts." -
Mark Twain







On 9/8/13 4:46 PM, "Barbara Schmidt" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>On 13 January 2013, the Forum featured a "Briefly Noted" review of
>Robert Graysmith's book _Black Fire_ about the San Francisco fireman
>named Tom Sawyer who during the 1890s publicly claimed to have been
>the inspiration for Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer" character. That review
>stated there was apparently no record of Clemens's being aware of the
>fireman's claim.  It turns out, however, that Clemens was aware of it
>and explicitly refuted it. An interview conducted by future Pulitzer
>Prize-winner Lute Pease and published in the _Portland Oregonian_ on
>11 August 1895 says that Sawyer's assertion was presented to Clemens,
>who replied that the story "lacks a good deal in the way of facts." He
>went on to state that "Tom Sawyer" was not the real name of "any
>person I ever knew, so far as I can remember..." The entire interview
>is reprinted in Gary Scharnhorst's _Mark Twain: The Complete
>Interviews_ (2006), pp. 172-175. A corrected Forum review can be read
>on this page:
>
>http://www.twainweb.net/reviews/BrieflyNoted.html