Those Extraordinary Twins: Mark Twain's First Draft of Pudd'nhead Wilson

Written by Mark Twain

Narrated by Richard Henzel

A man of many firsts, Mark Twain was the first author to use the typewriter and the first person to have a telephone in his home (which no doubt made him the first person to swear at tech support!). He patented the accordion file, the fountain pen, and adjustable suspenders. And when he published "deleted scenes" from Pudd'nhead Wilson as Those Extraordinary Twins he became the first publisher to include "bonus tracks" as well as the finished work.

As Twain said: "As a short tale grows into a long tale, the original intention (or motif) is apt to get abolished and find itself superseded by a quite different one. It was so in the case of a magazine sketch which I once started to write - a funny and fantastic sketch about a prince and a pauper....

Much the same thing happened with Pudd'nhead Wilson, because it changed itself from a farce to a tragedy while I was going along with it - a most embarrassing circumstance....it was not one story, but two stories tangled together; and they obstructed and interrupted each other at every turn and created no end of confusion and annoyance. So I pulled out the farce and left the tragedy."

(P)2007 Big Happy Family LLC

• Language: English
• Publisher: Big Happy Family
• Release date: Jul 15, 2009
• ISBN: 9780974723723

Mark Twain

Mark Twain, who was born Samuel L. Clemens in Missouri in 1835, wrote some of the most enduring works of literature in the English language, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc was his last completed book—and, by his own estimate, his best. Its acquisition by Harper & Brothers allowed Twain to stave off bankruptcy. He died in 1910.