SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Mark Twain fans have a new cache of writings to pour through with the recent discovery of the then-newspaperman’s stories, many of which are 150 years old.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports a 29-year-old Twain wrote some of the letters and stories at the newspaper’s new offices when it was still called the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle.
Bob Hirst is the editor of the University of California at Berkeley’s Mark Twain project, and said the articles were found by combing through western newspaper archives. The author’s characteristic style authenticated some of the unsigned letters.
His 2,000-word daily assignment for the Territorial Enterprise, a Nevada paper, had him writing about everything from San Francisco police to mining accidents, all with varying degrees of truth and humor.