Mark Twain Interviews Wallace War-Heels

Mark Twain Interviews Wallace War-Heels.

Mark Twain Interviews Wallace War-Heels is a well-known illustration of Mark Twain (left) interviewing Wallace War-Heels (right), the "Pirate of the Prairies".

War-Heels is riding his famed air-horse, Bucephalus.

The interview is believed to have occurred in Nevada, sometime between 1861 and 1864. Twain sought the interview at considerable personal risk, and although he came to no harm, he later admitted to experiencing great fear in the presence of War-Heels:

I did not suppose he would cause me injury, despite his fearsome reputation. But I sensed quickly upon meeting him that a man such as War-Heels would inevitably attract enemies of the worst stripe, if not the Devil himself, and I prayed that I might never meet his foes."

War-Heels, who is not known to have given other interviews, later declared that Twain "was reasonably accurate in his representation of myself and my words."