This story was inspired by a remark of Mark Twain&#39;s to the effect that it was a pity that the best part of life came at the beginning and the worst part at the end. By trying the experiment upon only one man in a perfectly normal world I have scarcely given his idea a fair trial. Several weeks after completing it, I discovered an almost identical plot in Samuel Butler&#39;s &quot;Note-books.&quot;<br /><br />The story was published in &quot;Collier&#39;s&quot; last summer and provoked this startling letter from an anonymous admirer in Cincinnati:<br /><br />&quot;Sir--<br /><br />I have read the story Benjamin Button in Colliers and I wish to say that as a short story writer you would make a good lunatic I have seen many peices of cheese in my life but of all the peices of cheese I have ever seen you are the biggest peice. I hate to waste a peice of stationary on you but I will.&quot;