Scholars at the University of California, Berkley have found 110 stories by the author Mark Twain. According to Bob Hirst, the general editor for the Mark Twain project at Berkeley, these stories are from Twain’s time in San Francisco. Twain would have been 29 when he wrote these stories, and the stories themselves are about 150 years old.
Hirst said that “This is a very special period in his life, when he’s out here in San Francisco. He’s utterly free, he’s not encumbered by a marriage or much of anything else, and he can speak his mind and does speak his mind. These things are wonderful to read, the ones that survived.”
When Twain wrote these pieces he was writing for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada in 1865. HE would write six days out of the week for $100 a week and the stories would be 2,000 words.
Also, during this time in Twain’s life he was struggling. He wrote to his brother contemplating suicide because of how much debt he was in, and Twain was not sure if humor had a place in literature. Thankfully, his time in San Francisco changed that and he brought humor to literature. The following year he moved to Hawaii.
Photo: PBS
