Synopses & Reviews
"Mark Twain dictated much of this bookand#151;now it is a book at lastand#151;from a big rumpled bed. Reading it is a bit like climbing in there with him."and#151;Roy Blount, Jr.
"To say that the editors have done an extremely good job is a little like saying the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel does a good job of keeping the rain off the Pope's head. It is true but it doesn't give even a whiff of the grandeur of the thing."and#151;Robert D. Richardson, author of Emerson: The Mind on Fire
"Mark Twain, always so blithely ahead of his time, has just outdone himself: he's brought us an Autobiography from beyond the grave: a hundred-year-old relic that yet manages to accomplish something new. It anticipates the Cubism just taking form in Samuel Clemens's last years, by exploding the confines of orderliness, sequence, the dutiful march of this-then-that. In so doing, it gives us not simply Mark Twain's lifeand#151;that is the prosaic work of biographersand#151;but the ways in which he thought of his life: in all the fragmented recollection, distraction, creation, revision and dreaming that make up the true, divinely jumbled devices we all use to recapture experience and feeling. If this prodigious and prodigal pastiche were a machine, it would be the Paige typesetterand#151;except that it works."and#151;Ron Powers, author of Mark Twain: A Life
Review
and#8220;Now, common sense, at last. We have, emblazoned big as life on the paperback cover underneath Twainand#8217;s photo . . . the words and#8216;Readerand#8217;s Edition.and#8217; The very idea of it is a winner. . . . It is less academically punctilious but indeed more reader-friendly.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Smith and her companion editors have accomplished a herculean task. . . . A more accurately arranged collection than any earlier edition.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Sometimes the autobiography seems Twainand#8217;s letter to posterity. At other times, reading it feels like eavesdropping on a conversation he is having with himself. . . . This first installment of Twainand#8217;s autobiography brings us closer to all of him than we have ever come before.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This is a book to treasure for all friends of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Dip into the first enormous volume of Twainand#8217;s autobiography that he had decreed should not appear until 100 years after his death. And Twain will begin to seem strange again, alluring and still astonishing, but less sure-footed, and at times both puzzled and puzzling in ways that still resonate with us, though not the ways we might expect.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;This is a book for dipping, not plunging. Read, as Twain might put it, until interest pales, and then jump. It feels like a form of time travel.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Twain generously provides the 21st century aficionado a marvelous read. His crystalline humor and expansive range are a continuous source of delight and awe. . . . [He] has given us and#8216;an astonishmentand#8217; in his autobiography with his final, beautifully unorganized genius and intemperate thoughts. Pull up a chair and revel.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Mission accomplished, Mr. Clemens.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;The bestseller chart is awash with memoirs -- but none offer the extreme reading of the Autobiography of Mark Twain.and#8221;
Review
“His 'whole frank mind, sharp and funny, is seared onto every page. A” Debra Craine - The Times
Review
and#8220;Brimming with Twainand#8217;s humor, ideas and opinions, this is a book for anyone interested in the writerand#8217;s work and life.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;With the uncensored Twain finally here, we're the furthest thing from indifferent.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Promises a no-holds barred perspective on Twainand#8217;s life, and will be rich with rambunctious, uncompromising opinions.and#8221;
Review
“Twains writing here is electric, alternately moving and hilarious. He couldnt write a ho-hum sentence.” Herald Scotland
Review
“Twain would approve!” Library Journal
Review
“A major achevement.” Bookideas.com
Review
and#8220;Twain's autobiography, finally available after a century, is a garrulous outpouringand#8212;and every word beguiles.and#8221;
Review
“Twians ‘Final Plan has been released in a truly spectacular first volume of his posthumous ‘Autobiography.” Wall Street Journal
Review
and#8220;Pure Twain at his typically discursive, rambling, and droll. . . . The bard of Hannibal still has much to say.and#8221;
Review
New American Heritage
Review
and#8220;His 'and#8217;whole frank mind,and#8217; sharp and funny, is seared onto every page. Aand#8221;
Review
and#8220;Twainand#8217;s writing here is electric, alternately moving and hilarious. He couldnand#8217;t write a ho-hum sentence.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Twain would approve!and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A major achevement.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Twianand#8217;s and#8216;Final Planand#8217; has been released in a truly spectacular first volume of his posthumous and#8216;Autobiographyand#8217;.and#8221;
Synopsis
The year 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of Mark Twainand#8217;s death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twainand#8217;s works, UC Press published
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, the first of a projected three-volume edition of the complete, uncensored autobiography. The book became an immediate bestseller and was hailed as the capstone of the lifeand#8217;s work of Americaand#8217;s favorite author.
This Readerand#8217;s Edition, a portable paperback in larger type, republishes the text of the hardcover Autobiography in a form that is convenient for the general reader, without the editorial explanatory notes. It includes a brief introduction describing the evolution of Mark Twainand#8217;s ideas about writing his autobiography, as well as a chronology of his life, brief family biographies, and an excerpt from the forthcoming Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2and#151;a controversial but characteristically humorous attack on Christian doctrine.
About the Author
Harriet Elinor Smith is an editor at the Mark Twain Project, which is housed within the Mark Twain Papers, the world's largest archive of primary materials by this major American writer. Under the direction of General Editor Robert H. Hirst, the Project's editors are producing the first comprehensive edition of all of Mark Twain's writings.