Old Scratch

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Mr. Scratch redirects here. For the film of that title, see The Devil and Daniel Webster (film) circa 1941.

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, in Alan Wake by Remedy Entertainment, Dirty Jobs episode 1.28 ("Coal Miner"), The Witches of Eastwick (film), and in The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving.


References

  1. ↑ "Old Scratch", The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (Houghton Mifflin Company), Fifth Edition, 2011 


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