SOURCE: "Twain's Jumping Frog: Folktale to Literature to Folktale," in Western Folklore, Vol. 22, January, 1963, pp. 17-18.

In the following essay, Cohen claims that despite its clear origins in folklore, Twain's frog story achieved such a widespread reputation and was so clearly associated with his name that later folk versions of the tale were assumed to have used his tale as their source.

Sometime in February, 1865, when Mark Twain was at Angel's Camp, California, trying his luck at pocket mining, he made an entry in his notebook as follows:

Coleman with his jumping frog—bet a stranger $50.—Stranger had no frog and C. got him one:—In the meantime stranger filled C's frog full of shot and he couldn't jump. The stranger's frog won.

He had heard the jumping frog story from Ben Coon, a solemn, old river pilot who spun yarns in a run-down tavern that Twain frequented...