In a message dated 11/30/2007 12:35:01 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Travel books were popular at the time, = but Twain's was the first to be written in such a distinctly American = voice. Some might disagree. J. Ross Browne's _Yusef_ was said to be a "direct forerunner of Innocents Abroad," and Browne himself thought it a bit more than a "forerunner"--In London, he wrote his wife on 16 Oct 1872 (Browne was *definitely* an "American Voice" and a popular travel writer: I met Mark Twain a day or two ago at Judge Turner’s. He is just the same dry, quaint old Twain we knew in Washington. I believe he is writing a book over here. He made plenty of money on his other books—some of it on mine [Browne, 399]. (I'd be happy to send you the two passages in Mark Twain Day By Day about this issue...Just email me. David H Fears)