I don't know the reviewer, but I am certain I spoke to his or her descendants. I won't say who they were, either, but I wrote a letter much like Twain's that I have instructed my heirs to send 100 years after my death to the event's sponsoring organization. 

On Mar 28, 2013, at 5:58 PM, Scott Holmes wrote:

> I greatly enjoyed the response to the review.  It often reminded me of
> one of Graham Chapman's characters responding to a Monty Python skit.
> 
> On Thu, 2013-03-28 at 16:21 -0500, Tracy Wuster wrote:
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> In "My Father Mark Twain," Clara tells the story of how Twain would
>> write but not send letters to vent his anger.  She gives the example
>> (p69-70) of a letter to a man who had written an unsigned review of
>> Twain's Jamestown, N.Y. lecture in 1870.
>> 
>> Roughly 16 years later, this man wrote to Twain asking for help
>> obtaining a consulship, to which Twain offered to instead provide a
>> rope or a burial permit.  The critique of Twain's lecture is quite
>> funny in how it so blatantly missed the point, and I would be tempted
>> to call it a satire, if not for Twain's letter.
>> 
>> The review is on Stephen Railton's site (scroll down):
>> 
>> http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/onstage/sandrev4.html
>> 
>> Does anyone have any guesses on the identity of the reviewer?  I
>> searched through the letters online at the MTP and didn't have any
>> luck making the connection, so I thought I would seek out some help.
>> 
>> Thanks in advance,
>> 
>> Tracy Wuster

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