I did work out some of this story, with the help of Barb and Kevin, awhile back. Short answer is there are no known recordings, but if anyone finds a Bettlini cylinder of singer Nellie Melba you'll hear Mark Twain at the end of it.

More to come.

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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.
> 
> 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 him,
> which I would liken to someone like Rich Little doing Johnny Carson.  i.e.
> 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 many
> years back.  They just had no way of knowing.  My guess = it is also
> plausible that somehwere out there, somehow, a recording of MT may exist,
> like that old manuscript of Huck Finn....
> 
> I also vaguely recall having a discussion on this LIST long ago, and I'd
> love to hear other views.
> 
> --Hal B.
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Harris, Susan Kumin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
>> Today a colleague asked me if there were any extant recordings of Twain's
>> v=
>> oice, and I realized that I have a memory of someone talking about an
>> Ediso=
>> n recording--but also that it may have been destroyed.  Can someone set me
>> =
>> straight on this?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thank you!  --susan harris
>> 
> -- 
> 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>