I have no doubt this identification is correct.  But doesn't the letter signed "Many Citizens" in some ways smack of something Clemens himself might have written as a publicity tool?  

Carl

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 29, 2013, at 11:03 AM, Leslie Myrick <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Hi Tracey,
> MTP editors have identified the writer of the review as Jamestown =
> Journal editor Coleman E. Bishop.
> Here is a link to the reference on MTPO (if this link doesn't work for =
> you, search on "contentious editor"):
> =
> http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=3Dletters/UCCL00430.xml;que=
> ry=3D%22contentious%20editor%22;searchAll=3D;sectionType1=3D;sectionType2=3D=
> ;sectionType3=3D;sectionType4=3D;sectionType5=3D;style=3Dletter;brand=3Dmt=
> p#1
> 
> If you click on "print view" in the upper right of the document viewer, =
> you will get the letter text and the full set of references for the =
> letter on a single, printable page.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Leslie Myrick
> Mark Twain Project=20
> 
> On Mar 28, 2013, at 2:21 PM, Tracy Wuster wrote:
> 
>> Hello all,
>> =20
>> In "My Father Mark Twain," Clara tells the story of how Twain would
>> write but not send letters to vent his anger.  She gives the example
>> (p69-70) of a letter to a man who had written an unsigned review of
>> Twain's Jamestown, N.Y. lecture in 1870.
>> =20
>> Roughly 16 years later, this man wrote to Twain asking for help
>> obtaining a consulship, to which Twain offered to instead provide a
>> rope or a burial permit.  The critique of Twain's lecture is quite
>> funny in how it so blatantly missed the point, and I would be tempted
>> to call it a satire, if not for Twain's letter.
>> =20
>> The review is on Stephen Railton's site (scroll down):
>> =20
>> http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/onstage/sandrev4.html
>> =20
>> Does anyone have any guesses on the identity of the reviewer?  I
>> searched through the letters online at the MTP and didn't have any
>> luck making the connection, so I thought I would seek out some help.
>> =20
>> Thanks in advance,
>> =20
>> Tracy Wuster