I will see your wager and raise the pot that you are right about those interesting stories. I’m not only the Jim Smiley of Book Agents, I was among the last of them.

My door to door experience took the form of the Encyclopedia Americana. I know from accounts from Twain’s time that the sample cases, sample books, and I’m guessing much of the sales pitch remained essentially unchanged from his time to mine. 
Alan










Alan Kitty, Executive Director
Mark Twain Education Society

“Laughter can shatter the most colossal humbug; blow it to rags and atoms with a single blast.”

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 18, 2020, at 11:00 AM, Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> Did any book agent write up his experiences - what it was like traveling around the country, from house to house and farm to farm, selling people advance copies of Twain's next book? I would wager a healthy sum that there were some quite interesting stories to tell.
> - B. Clay Shannon