I greatly enjoyed the response to the review. It often reminded me of one of Graham Chapman's characters responding to a Monty Python skit. On Thu, 2013-03-28 at 16:21 -0500, Tracy Wuster wrote: > Hello all, > > In "My Father Mark Twain," Clara tells the story of how Twain would > write but not send letters to vent his anger. She gives the example > (p69-70) of a letter to a man who had written an unsigned review of > Twain's Jamestown, N.Y. lecture in 1870. > > Roughly 16 years later, this man wrote to Twain asking for help > obtaining a consulship, to which Twain offered to instead provide a > rope or a burial permit. The critique of Twain's lecture is quite > funny in how it so blatantly missed the point, and I would be tempted > to call it a satire, if not for Twain's letter. > > The review is on Stephen Railton's site (scroll down): > > http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/onstage/sandrev4.html > > Does anyone have any guesses on the identity of the reviewer? I > searched through the letters online at the MTP and didn't have any > luck making the connection, so I thought I would seek out some help. > > Thanks in advance, > > Tracy Wuster