I think you can hear that recording here:

http://www.salwenpr.com/files/marktwainaudio1.wav

The intro would indicate that it was not Mark Twain.

Carl

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mark Twain Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Harold
> Bush
> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 7:31 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Twain Recording?
> 
> 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>