Old Scratch or Mr. Scratch is a folk name for The Devil in the local legends of New England and pre-Civil War America.[1] It is possible that the local legends containing this name were influenced by Faustian stories brought to North America by German immigrants.
Old Scratch is also referred to in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, in The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo by Rudyard Kipling, in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, in The Three Clerks by Anthony Trollope, in Miracle Monday by Elliot S. Maggin, and in Alan Wake by Remedy Entertainment.