Did y’all know that Mark Twain dictated a post-mortem novel and two short stories by Ouija board to a lady in Missouri between 1915 and 1917? Me neither. Jason Offutt at From the Shadows has the story:
Emily Grant Hutchings, a struggling novelist, teacher and writer for St. Louis newspapers, claimed Twain dictated his last novel and two short stories – “Daughter of Mars” and “Up the Furrow to Fortune” – to her one letter at a time between 1915 and 1917 through a Ouija board.
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The book, “Jap Herron,” was published by Mitchell Kennerley in 1917 as “a novel written from the Ouija board – Mark Twain via Emily Grant Hutchings.” Harper & Brothers, owners of the copyright on the pen name “Mark Twain,” sued Kennerley in 1918.
You can find a PDF of the novel here. (Via the one and only Andy Duncan, who’s on a roll this week.)
Very interesting. I’ll have to find it on line, but there’s one by an old woman from the 30’s who channeled George Washington’s biography. Historians said it was right on the money. This is a whole genre unto itself.
Oh, the awesomeness.
Wow, so much for “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” Who knew you had to keep pounding those keys.