SAN FRANCISCO — Scholars at the University of California, Berkeley have uncovered and authenticated a cache of stories written by Mark Twain when he was a 29-year-old newspaperman in San Francisco.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports Twain wrote some of the letters and stories at the newspaper’s offices when it was called the San Francisco Dramatic Chronicle.
Twain’s job included writing a 2,000-word story every day and sending it off by stagecoach for publication in a newspaper in Virginia City, Nev.
He wrote about everything from San Francisco police to mining accidents, all with varying degrees of truth and humor.
Bob Hirst is editor of the UC Berkeley’s Mark Twain project and says the articles were found by combing through western newspaper archives.
