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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:37:03 -0500
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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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<[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
Re: Source for story in Life on the Mississippi
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From:
Barbara Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
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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.
>

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