Dear forum members, I'm hoping to pick your collective brains about any memory of Twain crossing paths with William Wells Brown, or any evidence about Twain having read * Clotel* (or its variations: *Clotelle*, *Miralda*, etc). The original * Clotel* wasn't published in the US originally, but since Twain spent some time overseas, I thought he might have stumbled on it there. I checked Gribben's *Reconstruction*, but see no mention of Twain owning any of Brown's works (unless there's something in the rumored updated edition), and I read a few articles that talk about them in conjunction with one another, but nothing that would indicate Twain having read Brown, or that they had met. Any leads? Thanks and have a happy fourth, Michael MacBride Southern Illinois University, Carbondale [log in to unmask]