The request for specific items in a grey market economy suggests the requester is a procurer of sought after items. So they may not have any interest in Twain, but their buyer does. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 16, 2019, at 10:03 PM, JULES AUSTIN HOJNOWSKI <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> No, i have not
> 
> Not by postal or email
> 
> At least he read some of twain, to follow him :)
> 
> Jules
> 
> Get Outlook for Android<https://aka.ms/ghei36>
> 
> ________________________________
> From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Kent Rasmussen <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 16, 2019 8:48:08 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Mark Twain in Venezuela
> 
> Today, I received a note from a South American identifying himself as a
> "professor of literature" at a high school in Venezuela inviting me to
> donate four volumes of Mark Twain's writings that I edited to his
> unnamed school. The books, he assured me, "will be used, with students,
> in order to study the 19th century American Literature and authors."
> 
> My initial reaction was sympathetic. I rather liked the idea of young
> Venezuelan students eagerly poring through my books. At the same time,
> however, I wondered if the letter was sincere. Something about it had a
> familiar ring to it. The letter has too much the feel of boilerplate. I
> decided to see what I could learn about the correspondent online, and
> what I found is very revealing. My first discovery was the text of a
> note he wrote to a British society of stamp collectors phrased almost
> the same as his letter to me:
> 
> "Dear  staff  of  Norvic Philatelics . I´m  a professor of  `History' at
> a local High School. I´d like to know if you can send as donation (by
> Postal Service) some postage stamps from Great Britain. I need  these
> postage stamps, in order to get better my classes with my students,
> focused on Philately as a source to learn world history, arts and sciences."
> 
> Hey, I thought ... isn't he supposed to be a "professor of literature"?
> Maybe he wears two hats. Or possibly three. I also found this note he
> wrote to a German amateur film-making society:
> 
> "Dear Staff of Selon Fischer Filmproduktion, I am professor of Films &
> Filmmaking at local school of cinema. I would like to know if you can
> send as donation (using post office) the DVD-Films: Die Sprachlosen
> (2014) Vogelfrauen (2015) Fettes Grün (2016) These DVD-Films will be
> watched by students, in order to study: film-directing by Selon Fischer.
> ..."
> 
> I suspect that further research might uncover more examples of this
> fellow's versatility, but I won't bother to look for them. Meanwhile, I
> have recalled why his boilerplate letters sounded so familiar. One of
> the books he asked me to send him is DEAR MARK TWAIN, which contains a
> letter (no. 99) from a young Norwegian asking Mark Twain for an
> autograph in 1890, while suggesting that obtaining a sample of his
> handwriting would give him his greatest joy. That letter didn't sound
> sincere to me, either. A little research on my part discovered that its
> author wrote similarly flattering letters to a wide variety of people,
> essentially telling each that having his autograph would complete his
> joy. The multi-talented "professor" in Venezuela sounds like his kinsman.
> 
> I would be interested to know if anyone else on the forum has received
> similar requests from my brazen Venezuelan correspondent.
> 
> Kent