Mark Twain quote about his father's surprising maturation (antedating attrib circa 1915) (req paper verification)

[Joel S. Berson]

At 1/8/2010 05:35 AM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly
>stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I
>was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years.
...
>Fred Shapiro in YBQ comments: Attributed in Reader's Digest, Sept.
>1937. The attribution to Twain is obviously spurious because Twain's
>father died when the future writer was eleven years old."

Fred, I'm disappointed.  I can easily imagine a humorist like Twain
saying this even though it could not have been literally the case for himself.

Joel

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