Mark Twain 
Lucretia Smith’s Soldier 

I am an ardent admirer of those nice, sickly war stories in Harper's Weekly, and for the last three months I have been at work upon one of that character, which I now forward to you for publication. It can be relied upon as true in every particular, inasmuch as the facts it contains were compiled from the official records in the War Department at Washington… (M.T.) 

Circa l’autore

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),   known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer.