SOURCE: "Mark Twain's Use of California Folklore in his Jumping Frog Story," in Journal of American Folklore, Vol. LXV, 1952, pp. 155-58.

In the following essay, Cuff discusses similarities between Twain's jumping frog story and earlier published versions with roots in California folklore, and asserts that while there are parallels in terms of content and phrasing among the various renditions, the imaginative, dramatic, and realistic detail in "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" are clearly Twain's own contribution.

A few accounts of a jumping contest between frogs had appeared in print before Mark Twain wrote the story, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,"¹ later usually entitled, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." These earlier accounts may have served Twain as sources. His story echoes some of their phrases. The chief treasury from which he drew, however, must have been his own mind and personality—his stock of impressions...