TWAIN-L Archives

Mark Twain Forum

TWAIN-L@YORKU.CA

Options: Use Forum View

Use Monospaced Font
Show Text Part by Default
Show All Mail Headers

Message: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Topic: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]
Author: [<< First] [< Prev] [Next >] [Last >>]

Print Reply
Subject:
From:
Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:37:03 -0500
Content-Type:
text/plain
Parts/Attachments:
text/plain (18 lines)
A search of historic newspaper databases show the "Letter from a Convict"
being published 1873-1876. I found no stories indicating it was a fake
until newspapers were printing portions of LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI in 1883.

Barb

On Fri, Mar 17, 2023 at 4:45 PM Bob Gill <
[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I have a question about a story in Chapter 52 of Life on the Mississippi –
> the one about Williams the burglar and the faked letter to him from an
> ex-convict. I’m wondering if it’s essentially true, if it’s something Mark
> Twain worked up based on a small kernel of truth, or if he made it up
> entirely out of whole cloth? Does anybody know?
>
>  -- Bob G.
>

ATOM RSS1 RSS2