The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories
About this audiobook
This delightful collection of lesser-known gems by Mark Twain begins with the story of a town called Hadleyburg, which prides itself on the honesty of its citizens. One day a citizen of Hadleyburg offends a stranger passing through, who vows to take his revenge by revealing just how corruptible the sanctimonious town really is. Twain is at his best here, poking fun at common hypocrisy as the self-satisfied pillars of the community are done in by their own greed.
Other stories in the collection include: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” “The One Million Pound Bank Note,” “Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale,” “The Stolen White Elephant,” “Cannibalism in the Cars,” “The Man Who Put Up at Gadsby’s,” “The Story of the Good Little Boy,” “The Story of the Bad Little Boy,” “Baker’s Blue Jay Yarn: What Stumped the Blue Jays,” and “A Double Barreled Detective Story.”
Produced by Alcazar AudioWorks with original music by David Thorn
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About the author
Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), was born in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal on the west bank of the Mississippi River. He attended school briefly and then at age thirteen became a full-time apprentice to a local printer. When his older brother Orion established the Hannibal Journal, Samuel became a compositor for that paper and then, for a time, an itinerant printer. With a commission to write comic travel letters, he traveled down the Mississippi. Smitten with the riverboat life, he signed on as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot. After 1859, he became a licensed pilot, but two years later the Civil War put an end to the steam-boat traffic. In 1861, he and his brother traveled to the Nevada Territory where Samuel became a writer for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and there, on February 3, 1863, he signed a humorous account with the pseudonym Mark Twain. The name was a river man’s term for water “two fathoms deep” and thus just barely safe for navigation. In 1870 Twain married and moved with his wife to Hartford, Connecticut. He became a highly successful lecturer in the United States and England, and he continued to write.
Alcazar AudioWorks is an audiobook producer and publisher for all ages. Founded in 1999, they specialize in classical stories, many of which are specially commissioned for home school curricula.
David Thorn spent his childhood in the Channel Islands off the coast of France, was schooled in England, and then immigrated to the United States at the age of twenty-three. He is retired from international commerce and currently resides in California.
Susan McCarthy is the narrator of numerous audiobooks, including such classics as Jane Austen’s Lady Susan and Sherwood Andersen’s Winesburg, Ohio. Her love for reading began as a young girl, when she discovered the Nancy Drew mystery series and was immediately hooked. Also a voice-over artist, she received her training at VoiceTrax San Francisco.
Bobbie Frohman, a third generation Californian, was raised in a large extended family, the niece of cowboys. Early on she developed a deep love of animals, training her dogs to perform with her at dog shows, and as a competitive barrel racer with her beloved horse, Lucky.
