Black Fire

Author Robert Graysmith talks about his book, Black Fire: The True Story of the Original Tom Sawyer and of the Mysterious Fires That Baptized Gold Rush-era San Francisco, in which he recalls author Mark Twain’s friendship with Thomas Sawyer, a customs inspector and volunteer fireman in San Francisco, whose name Twain would immortalize in his novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mr. Graysmith reported that in 1863, a twenty-eight year old Mark Twain, a reporter for San Francisco’s Daily Morning Call, befriended Mr. Sawyer over cards and drinks. It was during these casual meetings that Sawyer relayed to Twain stories of his youth and his involvement in stopping a serial arsonist that had set San Francisco afire six times in eighteen months. Robert Graysmith spoke at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. close