Clemens bought a typewriter in 1874 and wrote practice letters to W. D. Howells and Orion Clemens on Dec. 9. (Fishkin, _Lighting Out_, pp.174,244) "Portions of _Life on the Mississippi_ were submitted to the publisher typed" (Fishkin, 174). Clemens did not type them himself; they were transcribed from his longhand. Horst Kruse "suspect[s] that the typescript was desirable . . . to hide . . . the use of source materials, often in the form of clippings, frequently without proper acknowledgment, from publishers and printers" (_M.T. and "Life on the Miss."_, 134). Clemens also had other manuscripts (_Tom Sawyer Abroad_ and _Tom Sawyer, Detective_) typed and made revisions to the typed copy, but he did not do the typing. (_TSA::TSD_,189-191) Thanks, larry marshburne