Ron's right--Tom Blankenship was a childhood friend of Twain's. In 1906 he recalled TB as the model for Huck. From _Mark Twain A to Z_ (1995): [TB's] father, Woodson Blankenship, resembled Pap Finn in being a town drunk [in Hannibal], but was quite different in having a wife, Mahala, and eight children, all of whom were born in Missouri. The Blankenships were desperately poor, undisciplined and disreputable. Tom Blankenship consequently grew up badly fed, unschooled, unwashed and unsupervised. (37) Different stories describe Tom's adult life: in 1889 and 1899 he was reported dead, but in 1902 Tom's sister Elizabeth told Twain he was a "respected justice of the peace in Montana." (37) Jon ---------------------- Jon Stephen Miller Assistant Editor Walt Whitman Quarterly Review Department of English The University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1492 [log in to unmask] 1.319.335.0592