Rumors of His Oeuvre Finally Drying Up Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

Can it be? A new mystery-steeped short story from the renowned Mark Twain? A press release explains:

The Strand Magazine announces the forthcoming publication of a previously unpublished Mark Twain short story in an upcoming issue of The Strand.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.”

Read more about this coming publication here.