This question comes up from time to time... Twain's voice was recorded on several occasions, but I've never been able to track any of them down, and not for lack of trying. I know where one of them was until WW2, but not since. The recordings include one speech, his dictations for AC, some routine dictations to a secretary, a brief conversation with an opera singer, a recording by a guy who said he and another fellow were sent to record his voice, and probably a recording by Edison when his film crew visited Stormfield. The Edison Labs burned in 1913. I've looked for them in all the right places. A few years ago, while exploring the basement of Stormfield (which is the only original part of the structure that remains) I saw black voids in the crawl spaces beyond some old walls and if I'd had a flashlight I'd have gone crawling after wax cylinders that escaped the fire. While looking for recordings of Twain I've stumbled across original recordings of Jack London and O. Henry. The London recording was a badly damaged wax cylinder that could not be played. I also discovered that both Holmes and Whittier recorded their voices in a phonograph shop fronting the Boston Common (but they don't survive). Better known are recordings by Walt Whitman, Tennyson, etc. NB: The recording of the jumping frog story by William Gillette is often mistaken for an original Twain recording. Gillette gave that performance many times and I know of two versions, with slightly different texts in the story itself. Gillette's imitation is no doubt a good one-- on June 5, 1877 he impersonated Twain in Twain's presence and was praised by Twain. NMB: So, I catch any performance by Hal Holbrook that I can. Kevin @ Mac Donnell Rare Books 9307 Glenlake Drive Austin TX 78730 512-345-4139 Member: ABAA, ILAB ************************* You may browse our books at www.macdonnellrarebooks.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Harris, Susan Kumin" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, November 29, 2011 5:42 PM Subject: Twain Recording? 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 Susan K. Harris Hall Professor of American Literature University of Kansas Author of God's Arbiters: Americans and the Philippines, 1898-1902 ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1873 / Virus Database: 2102/4646 - Release Date: 11/29/11 ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2012.0.1873 / Virus Database: 2102/4646 - Release Date: 11/29/11