Mark Twain was famous for his stinging wit, but he also had a softer side. The author was the father of two daughters, Clara and Susy Clemens, and every night, he told them a bedtime story. Twain never published any of these fairy tales, but he did outline one, and called the 16-page work “Oleomargarine.
” Now, The New York Times reports, publisher Doubleday is expanding the tale into an illustrated children’s book, slated for release this fall.Researcher John Bird was perusing University of California-Berkeley’s vast Twain archives in 2011, searching for food references to add to a Mark Twain-themed cookbook. He thought “Oleomargarine” sounded like a recipe—but it turned out to be a bedtime story, written by Twain nearly 140 years ago.
“Oleomargarine” refers to a prince of the same name, who’s kidnapped by giants, and held hostage in a cave guarded by dragons. A poor boy named Johnny—who gains the power to talk…
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