DEAR JOHN,

Of course Emperor Norton was real. He is buried in Colma south of San
Francisco, I believe. He lives in legend throughout the City of San
Francisco. The short street named for Twain is in the area that Norton
frequented.

We have the book you speak of in the school library. I have read the Twain
portions of it. When I get back to school at the end of the week I can check
it out for you and see if there is anything worthy which hasn't been
mentioned.

The author suggests that Norton is a plausible inspiration for the King and
dwells on the dress and eccentricities attributed to both the king and to
the
emperor. He notes that Blair chose a different inspiration and he
respectfully disagrees.

He also wonders why there is no Twain write up of such an outstanding type.
He also cites four writers of the time who could have done the job.

There is a short biography from a Jewish perspective which questions why
Norton's fellow Jews were not active in his support nor present for his
burial.

And there are a lot of references to Norton in histories of the city.

Dennis Kelly