Autobiography of Mark Twain / Harriet Elinor Smith, editor ; associate editors, Benjamin Griffin ... [and others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.

Contributor:

Smith, Harriet Elinor.

Griffin, Benjamin, 1968-

Series:

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910. Mark Twain papers

The Mark Twain papers

Standardized Title:

Autobiography

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.

Twain, Mark.

Authors, American--19th century--Biography.

Authors, American.

Genre:

Biographies.

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

volumes <1-2> : illustrations ; 26 cm.

Edition:

Complete and authoritative edition.

Other Title:

Mark Twain

Place of Publication:

Berkeley : University of California Press, c2010-

Summary:

Presents Mark Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended.

"I've struck it!" Mark Twain wrote in a 1904 letter to a friend. "And I will give it away to you. You will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography." Thus, after dozens of false starts and hundreds of pages, Twain embarked on his "Final (and Right) Plan" for telling the story of his life. His innovative notion -- to "talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment"--Meant that his thoughts could range freely. The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be "dead, and unaware, and indifferent," and that he was therefore free to speak his "whole frank mind." The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain's death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain's works, UC Press is proud to offer for the first time Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography in its entirety and exactly as he left it. This major literary event brings to readers, admirers, and scholars the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended. - Publisher.

Contents:

v. 1. Preliminary manuscripts and dictations, 1870-1905

Autobiography of Mark Twain

Explanatory notes

Appendixes: Samuel L. Clemens, a brief chronology

Family biographies

Speech at the seventieth birthday dinner, 5 December 1905

Speech at the Players, 3 January 1906

Previous Publication

Note on the text

Word division in this volume

References

Index

v. 2. List of Dictations [including autobiographical dictations, April-December 1906 and January-February 1907]

Appendixes. Samuel L. Clemens: a brief chronology

Previous publication

Index

Notes:

"A publication of the Mark Twain Project of the Bancroft Library."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Association of American Publishers PROSE Award, 2010.

ISBN:

9780520267190

0520267192

0520272781

9780520272781

9780520279940

OCLC:

472790247