Dear Mr. Mac Donnell,

I have appreciated all your contributions to the Mark Twain Forum and to conferences I have attended.  I hope you don't mind a question about Clemens and a legal form book called Every Man His Own Lawyer and Business Form Book (1869 in San Francisco, and other editions) by John G. Wells. .  I am working on a legal paper about form books and wondered whether there is any evidence that Clemens owned this book. There is no mention in Mark Twain's Library nor in the letters, that I can find anyway.

Considering Clemen's legal burlesques and his experience in the Third House of the Nevada Legislature, I have a hard time believing he did not know of this book.

Would you happen to know of any evidence linking Clemens to the book?

Thanks in advance,

Mark Baggett 

J. Mark Baggett
Associate Professor of English and Law
Samford University and Cumberland School of Law
205-726-2309 (English office); 205-726-4129 (Law office); 205-726-2112 (Fax)
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