On Thu, 11 Dec 1997, PETER MESSENT wrote:

> The Bad Man from Bodie is, I think, an alternative title for
> ELDoctorow's Welcome to Hard Times. There may be a Twain connection
> too though? Cheers. Pete M.
>

Additional information received indicates the source for the Twain
connection is contained in a book titled _Badmen of the West_
written by Robert Elman, Ridge Press, c1974.

I've not examined the book, but have been informed the passage
reads...

In 1863, while working for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City,
a young reporter named Sam Clemens began using the pen name Mark Twain.
Later, when he wrote a story about "The Bad Man From Bodie,"
he was referring to a place across the line in California.
Bodie was long considered "the wickest town in the west."

Barb