Fiction_L Archives mark twain short story Dates: 1/29/02,2:35 PM  through  1/31/02,4:40 PM  (5 postings) Search for: Select one or more indexes to search: 2011-current     2009-2010     2004-2008    1995-2003    (Matches from each index will be displayed separately in the results page.) Return to January 2002 thread menu   |   Fiction_L Archives Menu

FROM: Anne Kabel <[removed]@metronet.lib.mi.us>
REC'D: 1/29/02, 2:35 PM

Hi all - we have a patron searching for a short story. She is sure it is
by Mark Twain and is sure that the title is The Mysterious Visitor (it is
not the Mysterious Stranger by Twain). In this story, a mysterious
visitor comes to a small town, predicting the exact day of death for some
children of the town and then leaves. The parents lock the children up on
that day to keep them from harm. The children sneak out of that place and
do indeed die, drowning in the river. The remainder of the story goes on
telling what each child's life might have been like if they had lived,
some happy , some sad.

I've checked our collections of short stories and other indexes but came
up blank. hope this sounds familiar to somebody. Thanks

Anne Kabel
Adult Reading Librarian
Baldwin Public Library
300 W. Merrill
P.O. Box 3002
Birmingham MI 48012-3002
248- 647-1700

FROM: "Karen Migaldi" <[removed]@nslsilus.org>
REC'D: 1/30/02, 3:42 PM

Could this be The Mysterious Visit? This short story appears in Cannibalism
in the Cars: the Best of Twain's Humorous Sketches (Prion, 2000).

Karen Migaldi
Crystal Lake P.L.
Crystal Lake, IL


-----Original Message-----
From: [removed]@maillist.webrary.org
[[removed]@maillist.webrary.org]On Behalf Of Anne Kabel
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2002 2:26 PM
To: Fiction_L
Subject: mark twain short story


Hi all - we have a patron searching for a short story. She is sure it is
by Mark Twain and is sure that the title is The Mysterious Visitor (it is
not the Mysterious Stranger by Twain). In this story, a mysterious
visitor comes to a small town, predicting the exact day of death for some
children of the town and then leaves. The parents lock the children up on
that day to keep them from harm. The children sneak out of that place and
do indeed die, drowning in the river. The remainder of the story goes on
telling what each child's life might have been like if they had lived,
some happy , some sad.

I've checked our collections of short stories and other indexes but came
up blank. hope this sounds familiar to somebody. Thanks

Anne Kabel
Adult Reading Librarian
Baldwin Public Library
300 W. Merrill
P.O. Box 3002
Birmingham MI 48012-3002
248- 647-1700

FROM: "Cherry Young" <[removed]@amarillolibrary.org>
REC'D: 1/31/02, 10:29 AM

The Mysterious Visit is a very short story, but it's about an IRS agent that
comes to visit and has nothing to do with the plot you described. You can
view the entire text here http://www.twainquotes.com/19610409.html

You should take a look at the Mysterious Stranger. As far as I can remember
it, it is extremely close to what your patron describes. The devil comes to
town and befriends a group of children. He predicts one of those children's
death. He tells one of the boy's friends in the group and shares with him
what a horrible life he's saving him from. If I'm remembering correctly, the
child that is to die is locked up in his room as punishment (his parents
aren't aware of the prediction), and then his mom sends him on an errand I
believe, and he ends up drowning in the river anyway.

This must be the story you're looking for.

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 1/31/02, 4:29 PM

At 10:24 AM 1/31/02 -0600, you wrote:
>The Mysterious Visit is a very short story, but it's about an IRS agent that
>comes to visit and has nothing to do with the plot you described. You can
>view the entire text here http://www.twainquotes.com/19610409.html
>
>You should take a look at the Mysterious Stranger. As far as I can remember
>it, it is extremely close to what your patron describes. The devil comes to
>town and befriends a group of children. He predicts one of those children's
>death. He tells one of the boy's friends in the group and shares with him
>what a horrible life he's saving him from. If I'm remembering correctly, the
>child that is to die is locked up in his room as punishment (his parents
>aren't aware of the prediction), and then his mom sends him on an errand I
>believe, and he ends up drowning in the river anyway.
>
>This must be the story you're looking for.


The following biblio of Twain's works shows no titles other than "The
Mysterious Visit" and "The Mysterious Stranger" starting with some
form of the word "mystery..."

If the client is sure "The Mysterious Stranger" is not the work
remembered, in spite of common plot element, perhaps s/he is recalling
one of the several early/abortive versions of the material that
Twain struggled with for years; these early/variant versions of
what finally posthumously appeared as "The Mysterious Stranger"
have been published in, among other places:

Author: Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.

Title: Mark Twain's Mysterious stranger manuscripts. Edited with an
introd. by William M. Gibson.

Published: Berkeley, University of California Press, 1969.

Description: x, 606 p. port. 24 cm.


see also for instance

http://www.boondocksnet.com/twainwww/essays/mysterious_stranger0011.html

Unfortunately, one of the three earlier versions is called "A
Mysterious Visitor" either....


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

FROM: Dennis Lien <[removed]@tc.umn.edu>
REC'D: 1/31/02, 4:40 PM

At 04:15 PM 1/31/02 -0600, you wrote:


>Unfortunately, one of the three earlier versions is called "A
>Mysterious Visitor" either....


ARRGGHH. I meant to write "none of the three," not "one of three."
Sorry if I falsely raised hopes. I also forgot to cite the Twain
bibliography I checked:

Author: Johnson, Merle De Vore, 1874-1935.

Title: A bibliography of the works of Mark Twain, Samuel Langhorne
Clemens

Published: New York and London, Harper & brothers, 1935.

Description: xiii, 274 p. front. (facsim.) illus. 25 cm.


Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // [removed]@tc.umn.edu

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