The original short story first appeared as a serialization in Harper's Monthly in December 1899, and was subsequently published as part of an anthology of Mark Twain short stories entitled "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Sketches" mid-year 1900.
Mark Twain often suggested that "Hadleyburg" should be considered as something akin to a modern, satirical retelling of the Garden of Eden story.
'Frances Sternhagen' portrays a character with the name of Mary Richards, a name usually associated with a character of the same name on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970) as played by Mary Tyler Moore. Just a few years after 'The Man That Corrupted Hadleyville' Robert Preston would star in a TV movie, Finnegan Begin Again (1985) with that same other Mary Richards, Mary Tyler Moore.
According to the story, 99 pounds of gold was worth about $40,000 in 1899. However, in 2012, the value of the same amount of gold would be over $2 million. (one pound = 12 troy ounces; 12 x 99.33 pounds = 1,192 troy ounces; with gold trading at approximately $1,700 per ounce in early 2012, that calculates as $2,026,332).