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)