Press Release: Previously Unpublished Mark Twain Work to Appear in The Strand Magazine

February 24, 2009: Birmingham (MI) -- The Strand Magazine announces the forthcoming publication of a previously-unpublished Mark Twain short story in an upcoming issue of The Strand. Adding to a long-running tradition of publishing works by such great writers as Conan Doyle (published in the original Strand -- 1891-1950), Ray Bradbury, Alexander McCall Smith, and Ruth Rendell, The Strand will feature Twain’s “The Undertaker’s Tale” in its March 2009 issue.

Andrew Gulli, editor of The Strand, said he grew up reading Mark Twain, and calls the opportunity to publish Twain’s work “an editor’s dream.” While “The Undertaker’s Tale,” will be published nearly 99 years after Twain’s death in 1910, Gulli notes that the work is both timely and timeless.

According to Gulli, “Though the story is called ‘The Undertaker's Tale,’ I would hazard against bracing for something gloomy—Twain uses his razor sharp wit to pen a tongue-in-cheek tale about the funeral industry, which could easily have been written today. After rereading several of Twain’s tales and essays, it became even clearer to me that Twain’s writings can never be dated. He tackles the same problems we're challenged with today, and pokes fun at the same characters that inhabit our present-day world.”

Moreover, added Gulli, “We are especially thrilled because this issue will also feature a P.G. Wodehouse story that has been lost for almost 100 years.”

Marking the first time an unpublished work of fiction by Mark Twain has appeared in years, The Strand will publish “The Undertaker’s Tale” in the March 2009 issue, available on March 10, 2009.

“The opportunity to publish something by such a literary icon as Mark Twain is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Frank Simon, Associate Publisher of The Strand. "We publishers just live for the chance to be a part of something like this."

Bob Miller, Publisher at HarperStudio, which will release Who is Mark Twain, a collection of Twain’s previously unpublished stories and essays later this year. commented, “The idea of publishing never-before-pieces by Mark Twain appealed to me for a number of reasons: I like the irony of starting something new with something old, as Twain was published from 1895 until 1910 by Harper Brothers, the company within which we are now starting HarperStudio. Also, the pieces themselves are wonderfully, hilariously contemporary, and deserve as wide an audience as possible.”

The Strand Magazine (www.strandmag.com) is the nation’s leading mystery publication. Published quarterly, The Strand Magazine brings to the forefront the best of today’s mystery fiction, articles, interviews and reviews. From hard-boiled detective stories to cozies, The Strand covers a broad spectrum of the mystery genre. A known and trusted name for fiction by some of today’s best authors, The Strand features in-depth interviews with best-selling writers, enlightening articles, as well as insightful reviews of the latest mysteries and thrillers, including children’s and young adult mysteries, and audiobooks.

For more information, please contact Maryglenn McCombs by phone -- (615) 297-9875, or by email -- maryglenn@maryglenn.com.

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