Berkeley project discovers writing from Mark Twain's early days as a newspaperman

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.

Many of the stories are 150 years old.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports (http://bit.ly/1Pi8lG7) 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, or "letter," every day and sending it off by stagecoach for publication in the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada.

He wrote about everything from San Francisco police to mining accidents, all with varying degrees of truth and humor.

Bob Hirst is editor of UC Berkeley's Mark Twain project and says the articles were found by combing through western

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Information from: San Francisco Chronicle, http://www.sfgate.com