Letter from Mark Twain to Gardiner G. Hubbard, "The Father-in-law of the Telephone," 27 December 1890
In this satirical complaint letter, Twain rails to Bell's father-in-law against the poor telephone service he has received in Hartford, Connecticut. Apparently, there is no night service and Twain is regularly cut off while practicing his cursing. The truth be told, despite his criticisms, Twain loved new gadgets as evidenced by his embrace of the typewriter. It was Twain who submitted the first typed manuscript to a publisher. Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
This letter by Mark Twain is © 1999 by Richard A. Watson and Chase Manhattan Bank as Trustees of the Mark Twain Foundation, which reserves all reproduction or dramatization rights in every medium. It is published here with the permision of the University of California Press and Robert H. Hirst, General Editor of the Mark Twain Project.
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