November 29 Friday – The New York Times ran a 1,700 word article on the front page signed by “Scupper Nong” about a meeting of a correspondent and General Ulysses S. Grant. Muller calls this the “Scupper Nong Letter” (in Chapter 3) and notes it was reprinted the following day in the  Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph with the byline of Mark Twain [47]. The article was the result of Sam and Bill Swinton calling on Grant, who was not at home at the time. Donald Tiffany Bliss records that the interview with Grant was fictitious and in the Dec. 1868 issue of the New York Tribune. Evidently Bliss missed the Times article. Bliss writes, “Capturing Grant’s laconic personality, the spoof, much like a Saturday Night Live skit, mocked the evasive spin and non-answers that characterize so many political interviews” [87]. In the article, Sam wanted Grant’s opinion of Reconstruction policy. Anticipating possible negative responses to his chapter, Muller put a disclaimer on the page that his “finding has yet to be presented for peer review among the well-established network of Twain scholars and researchers.” Given the evidence in the Phila. paper, it seems no peer review is necessary. Muller explains Sam’s use of the pseudonym.