Hi Sue, those Edison recording were destroyed in a fire, and as far as is known, no verified recordings of MT have survived. I would add that Yale does have one recording, believed to be William Gillette (I think), who was an impersonator who know Twain personally and was supposedly quite accurate in his mimicry. There must be others of him, which I would liken to someone like Rich Little doing Johnny Carson. i.e. pretty accurate. It is plausible that it is not Gillette, and in fact MT himself; I remember hearing that from someone in the Beinecke at Yale many years back. They just had no way of knowing. My guess = it is also plausible that somehwere out there, somehow, a recording of MT may exist, like that old manuscript of Huck Finn.... I also vaguely recall having a discussion on this LIST long ago, and I'd love to hear other views. --Hal B. On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 5:42 PM, Harris, Susan Kumin <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Today a colleague asked me if there were any extant recordings of Twain's > v= > oice, and I realized that I have a memory of someone talking about an > Ediso= > n recording--but also that it may have been destroyed. Can someone set me > = > straight on this? > > > > Thank you! --susan harris > -- Harold K. Bush, Ph.D Professor of English Saint Louis University St. Louis, MO 63108 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h) <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>