Charles William Shirley Brooks (1816–74) began his association with the illustrated comic weekly Punch, or the London Charivari, in 1851, and became its editor in 1870. He was trained in the law, and began his journalism career as the parliamentary reporter for the London Morning Chronicle. He contributed numerous articles and stories to the best periodicals, and wrote dramatic and comic works for the stage as well. Brooks’s response to this letter has not been found, nor did any article by Clemens appear in Punch. It is possible, however, that an unpublished comic sketch about the Doré Gallery, which survives in the Mark Twain Papers, was the “brief article” that he wanted to submit. This piece, written in the form of a letter to an unidentified “Sir” and subscribed “London, September,” mocks the importunate efforts of gallery employees to sell engravings to visitors (SLC 1873). It includes, in a humorous context, a description of Gustave Doré’s Christ Leaving the Praetorium, an immense painting that Clemens praised in his English journal after first viewing it in 1872 (see Mark Twain’s 1872 English Journalsclick to open link).